In Purgatory's Shadow
by Didjargo
Summary: A year after Terra’s demise, a mysterious girl comes to Jump city looking for her. Who is this girl, what are her intentions, and how far will Beast Boy go to get Terra back?
1. Arrival

In Purgatory's Shadow

Summary: A year after Terra's demise, a mysterious girl comes to Jump city looking for her. Who is this girl, what are her intentions, and how far will Beast Boy go to get Terra back?

Chapter 1: The Arrival

She walked patiently through the canyon but stopped at a large pile of rocks that blocked her path. She looked upwards to see the cliff above where the rocks fell from, then looked back down at the pile. She approached the pile and placed a hand against it. Somehow, she could feel the presence of the one she was looking for; she knew this was her doing. Finding no other way to progress by foot, she reached for her water canteen and poured the entire contents onto the ground before her. Tossing the empty container aside, she focused her energy on the puddle at her feet. A blue light enveloped her eyes and the puddle crystallized into solid ice. Wrenching her fist, she beckoned her creation to rise from the ground, becoming her own hovering platform. Stepping onto her platform, she levitated high above the cliffs, and peered off into the distance towards Jump City, to the end of her long search.

Later on, deep within the city, the outside wall of a bank burst apart and the alarm rang throughout the streets. The cause of which was another frantic caper of the Great Mumbo, laughing hysterically as he sprinted from the bank with large, cartoony sacks of money in hand. Fortunately, everyone's favourite super powered adolescent quintet showed up to save the day.

"Oh, great, it's Mumbo," Raven moaned, "Possibly our most annoying villain."

"I don't know Rae, I'd say that Gizmo takes that title. That little twerp really gets my goat!" Beast Boy objected before transforming into a goat in an attempt to ram Mumbo off his feet. But the slippery villain pulled a large hoop out of nowhere and dropped it in Beast Boy's path, which caused him to take on chicken form upon running through. After skidding onto the pavement and returning to his human form, Beast Boy raised a finger, "Okay, so he is the most annoying."

"Stay focused Titans!" Robin demanded, "We have to get that wand out of his hands!" He then threw a bird-a-rang in an attempt to knock the wand out of Mumbo's hand. But the wand burst into a flurry of flowers. Mumbo then revealed that the wand was in fact in his other hand.

"Ah, ah, ah, the will be no stopping this show stopper!" Mumbo taunted.

"Yes there will be!" Starfire tried her best to retort as she flung a barrage of star bolts towards the manic magician.

Mumbo saw the attack coming and, with a "Mumbo Jumbo!" pulled his hat over his entire body. When it flopped back to its original size, a very surprised Cyborg stood in Mumbo's place to receive the full blast of Starfire's attack. Cyborg yelped as he frantically had to dodge an array of star bolts, but the last one managed to hit him in the face.

Starfire gasped as she thought that she dealt some serious damage to her friend. The smoke cleared and Cyborg was still in one piece, burnt and annoyed, but in one piece, "… ouch."

Mumbo snatched the hat from atop Cyborg's chard-black head and neatly placed it back in his own before attempting to sprint off with his ill-gotten goods. But his escape was blocked as Raven appeared in front of him, "You don't know the first thing about magic," she glared.

"A heckler eh? How would you like a good old fashion card trick?" He said as he pulled a deck of cards out of nowhere and began shuffling them, "Are you familiar with 52 pick up?" And with that he sprayed the entire deck at Raven's face, when she fell down on the ground, she discovered that she had been trapped inside a giant Jester card suit.

Enduring her situation, she sat up and sneered at her adversary, "What I meant to say was that you don't even know the most basic rules… like, for instance, misdirection!"

That was the signal for a particularly green frog to emerge from under Mumbo's hat and grab the wand with its tongue. Mumbo let out a "Nooooo!" before he turned back into his powerless, geriatric self.

Beast Boy leapt off the man's shoulder, regained his human form in mid-air, and landed on the ground with the wand clenched between his teeth. After taking the drool-covered wand from his mouth, he turned around to taunt his enemy, "Who's the chicken now?" He then commenced a little victory dance, "Oh yeah, who's your Beast Boy? That's right, it's me! Ah ha!"

"I'll buy the victory pizza if you promise never to dance like that again," Raven offered as she used her powers to tear the restricting card costume off of her.

Beast Boy eagerly agreed to her deal but then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Darting his head towards the crowd gathered on the sidewalk, he studied the faces, but couldn't find what he thought he saw, "I could have sworn I just saw… no, that's impossible."

Later, the group sat around table at a local pizza parlour. The server approached them with their pizza, "Here you go, one super hero special- one third pepperoni and bacon, one third tofu and broccoli, and one third… um…anchovy and… mustard."

As soon as the server placed the pizza down on the table, Starfire rubbed her hands together, licked her lips, and began to engorge herself with her part of the pizza. She looked up to see everyone staring at her, "I am sorry, would any of you like a piece? It is of the same flavour as that of the pulverized Giffolsnaz of Yongrek 6." She offered with a smile.

"Remind me never to go to Yongrek 6," Cyborg said under his breath.

"What's the matter Cyborg? A little sore that you didn't get a shot in at today's battle?" Robin smirked.

"Man, you know I'm sore because not only didn't I lay a single hand the pointy nosed weirdo, but becasue I also got blasted square between the eyes by _somebody's_ star bolts!"

"Sorry," Starfire muffled through a pizza jammed in her mouth.

Beast Boy chuckled then saw somebody walk right past the window, "HA! I knew it!" He shouted as he stood up and pointed frantically.

Everyone looked in the direction that Beast Boy was pointing in but none of them even knew what to be looking for. They all turned back to look at Beast Boy, "Okay, what are we supposed to be looking at here?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy stood frozen for a moment then dropped his arm, "Um, you know what? Never mind, I guess my eyes were playing tricks on me or something. Heh-heh."

"Never a dull moment with you around," Raven sarcastically remarked.

It was getting late into the evening when the Titans made their exit from the pizza parlour, "Man, after a long day of crime fighting, I think I'm ready to head in for the evening," Cyborg commented, "Maybe I can squeeze in an hour of video games before plugging myself in for the night, what do you say BB?"

"Huh? Yeah, video games," Beast Boy responded inattentively.

"What's the matter Beast Boy?" Robin concerned, "You haven't been very talkative lately."

"Not that I'm complaining," Raven added. Robin shot an icy look at her and she backed off.

Beast Boy sighed and turn his head, which is when he saw the person he witnessed twice before walking down the sidewalk. This time they made eye contact, which caused the mystery person to back up and slip around the corner. "Hey, wait a minute!" he shouted before running off after this mystery person.

"Beast Boy!" Robin yelled as he chased after his erratic friend with the rest of the Titans following.

Beast Boy skidded around the corner to see the back this mystery person's head sprinting though a crowded sidewalk. "Wait, come back!" he yelled before transforming into a humming bird to dart through the crowd. His friends then came around the corner but lost sight of their shape-changing comrade in his tiny form.

Beast Boy frantically made his way though the labyrinth of pedestrians chasing after this illusive figure, the mystery person slipped into a back alley and Beast Boy followed. Since it was not crowded in the alley, Beast Boy returned to his human form to see a shadow of the figure run around a corner of the alley, "Please don't run! I just want to…" He turned the corner to find a dead end with no one there, "… talk."

He stood dumbfounded until his friends came up behind him, "Okay, seriously Beast Boy, what is going on here? What did you see?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy took a moment to collect his thoughts then turned around to face his friends, "You're not going to believe this… but… I saw her!"

The Titan's exchanged looks, "Please friend, who is this person of which you saw?" Starfire pleaded.

"I… I saw Terra… " He looked at them with hope in his eyes, "She's alive!"

Robin gave him a very concerned look, "Um, Beast Boy," He said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "It has been a year now… Terra, she is still… she hasn't… we never found a cure, remember?"

"But, but I saw her. I swear!" Beast Boy protested, "Maybe she cured herself! Maybe she has like amnesia or something and didn't recognize me!"

"I think you just thought you saw her, Mumbo's tricks must have gotten to your head. C'mon, we should go back to the Tower now."

"Yeah… yeah, you're right. I- I just need to get some sleep." Beast Boy agreed.

As the team began to leave the alley, Starfire stopped, shivered, and rubbed her arms, "Brrrrr, has it become colder here?"

"You must have just caught a cool breeze," Cyborg explained, "It'll be winter soon, so may as well enjoy this warm weather while it lasts."

Upon the rooftops, the mysterious figure looked down on them, "So they know her… but am I too late?" she asked herself before slipping away.

Author's Notes:  
So this is my first Teen Titans fan fic. I've always enjoyed the show so I though it was time to contribute to the fandom. That and I usually write for Disney's the Weekenders but the fan base is very low for that show and I would have to twist people's arms to get reviews out of them. Just so you know, there will be no sex, swearing or anything of the like in this story, I'm going to keep it as a TV friendly plot. Well, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I've seen stories for the Titans get like 10 reviews per chapter so I'm hoping to get a good response. I also aim to make future chapters longer as well. Oh, and I heard that Terra may be coming back in the TV series in "an interesting way" for season 5. Since I don't want to conflict with the TV series, consider this my own rendition of season 5.


	2. I'll Wait Forever

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 2: I'll Wait Forever

"How is he?" Robin asked as Cyborg entered the main room.

"He refuses to come out of his room. Whatever happened; whatever he saw, it's got him in a real mood." Cyborg explained as he leaned on the back of the couch.

"Please Cyborg, what is troubling our friend?" Starfire pleaded, "Is he really seeing of the dead people?"

"Honestly, I don't know. It could be a number of things. For all we know it could be all in his mind. I just hope that the little guy gets his head clear by the time that we're called into battle."

"Hey, has anyone seen Raven?" Robin queried.

"Ah yes, she said that was in need of doing something that she has been putting off for a while." Starfire answered.

In another part of the tower, Beast Boy had his head buried into his pillow when he heard a knock on his door, "I told you guys that I'm not coming out!" he spat.

"Is that how you greet everyone who comes to your door?" The dreary feminine voiced asked from behind the door.

"Raven?" Beast Boy asked as he leapt off his bed and opened the door, "The guys must be pretty desperate if they sent you up here to cheer me up."

"Hardly. C'mon, there's something that I need to show you," She responded before walking down the hall. Beast Boy followed after her out of pure curiosity.

Raven lead Beast boy into her room, a privilege she does not often grant. Beast Boy took this rare opportunity to gaze around at the dark, depressing décor. Raven stopped at her bookshelf, plucked a book from it, and paused for a moment to collect her thoughts before turning to face Beast Boy.

"Beast boy, do you remember when we were still looking for a cure for Terra's condition, and I said that I couldn't find any form of magic that could revive her?" Beast Boy shot her an accusing glare and she shamed at her poor choice of words, "I didn't mean to say that I was holding out on you," She corrected, "What I'm saying is that while looking for a cure, I came upon this spell."

She revealed a book-marked page to him. Beast Boy looked upon the ancient writing and pentagrams with confusion, "Okay, what does it do?" he asked.

Raven stuttered for a bit then sighed, "You may want to sit down," She offered as she used her magic to pull a chair over to Beast Boy. She sat down on her bed as Beast Boy took his seat. "It's complicated, but this spell has the ability to animate stone, but only as a lifeless puppet. It won't work on anything that is alive; that has a soul. Do you understand?" Beast Boy shook his head so Raven continued, "If I use this spell on Terra, and it doesn't work, then that means that she is still in there somewhere and there is hope to revive her… but if it does work then… then… Beast Boy I'm giving you a choice here, a choice to know the answer once and for all! A definitive yes or no if Terra is still alive!"

Beast Boy sat silently, staring at his feet, letting the information sink into his brain. Raven closed the book and placed it on her lap, "Look, it was a stupid idea. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"She won't really be there, will she?" Beast Boy interrupted her, "I mean, she'll be alive… but not Terra?"

Raven sighed, "If you want to get technical about it, she… her body would be like a stone zombie."

Beast Boy nearly became ill at the thought of defiling Terra's body like that, "I… I don't know. I mean, I want to know, but I don't want to do that to her. And what if it doesn't work? Then what? Do we start looking for a cure all over again or do we just leave her like that? I mean, C'mon Rae, what kind of a choice are you giving me here?"

"I'm trying to give you closure… I'm sorry, Beast Boy. I don't mean to sound defeatist, and I promise you, we're going to keep doing everything we can. I just thought that you would never be able to move on until you could know for sure," she got up and placed the book back on the shelf, "The choice is always here if you need it."

Beast Boy stood up from his chair, "You know what Raven? I don't want to move on. I'll wait for as long as it takes. I don't believe that there is nothing in all of science, magic or the entire galaxy that can at the very least shed some light on her condition. So thanks for the offer, but I would never want to mess up Terra's body with a spell like that just to know if all our efforts were a waste of time."

"So you're admitting that there may never be a cure?"

"I admit nothing! When you went and became the portal for Trigon to come and destroy the world, we never once thought that you were dead! Robin even went to the depths of hell itself to rescue you. At the very least, I'd expect the same kind of thing for Terra"

Raven's hair flailed and her room shook, "Stop it! Stop doing this to yourself! Did you ever once think that I'm trying to help you? That maybe the reason why you're seeing Terra around town is because after an entire year you've never gotten over it? You want to know what I think? She's dead, okay? And there's no cure for death. No spell, no science. She sacrificed herself for the good of the city and now she's dead! And if you want proof, I'll march right down to her grave, that's right, I said GRAVE, and use this spell to bring stone zombie Terra straight to your open arms!" At this point, objects in the room began circling like they were caught in a whirlwind.

"Raven, please stop, you're going crazy here!" Beast Boy pleaded to calm the darkness in his friend.

Raven managed to snap out of it and the chaos came to a grinding halt. She put a hand up to her head and sat back down on her bed, "I'm sorry Beast Boy. I shouldn't have let my emotions get out of control like that. I was only trying to help you."

Beast boy was about to respond but then Robin chimed over the communicator, "Beast boy, we have trouble, it's Plasmus! He's… um, what's going on here?"

"Uh, nothing," Beast Boy responded.

"Are… you in Raven's room?"

"Well, um,"

"And what was all that noise we heard? And why is Raven's hair all messed up?"

Beast Boy began to panic when Starfire came on the other line, her image split screening Robin's on the communicator, "Perhaps they were helping each other train though the grappling of wrestle?"

The image of Robin turned to face Starfire, "Starfire, I don't think that…"

Beast Boy interrupted them, "What was that? You said that some villain is doing villainy stuff? Raven and I, uh, we'll be going down together! I mean, we'll be coming together. I mean, uh--I gotta go!" and with that he hung up as quickly as possible.

Beast Boy breathed a sigh of relief then turned around to see Raven staring him down with all the anger she could muster, "You couldn't have made that sound anymore suggestive?" She sarcastically asked.

"Uh, sorry."

"_Sorry_ won't reattach your head to the mangled remains of your body once I get though with you! You're just lucky that we have business to do right now. No get OUT of my ROOM!" She screamed.

"I'm gone!" Beat Boy confirmed as he quickly sprinted out the door.

Raven pulled her hood over her head and breathed deeply to regain her composure, "This is why I don't let anybody in my room."

Down in the streets of the city, the neigh-unstoppable raging pile of sludge, otherwise known as Plasmus, was causing havoc in search of more toxic chemicals to feed his unstable body. A mother and child, attempting to escape from their wrecked car, were nearly doomed at the hand of Plasmus's blind rage. Fortunately, a wall of dark matter came between them and certain death. "Leave them alone!" Raven ordered as she flew in with her comrades. She then willed her creation to swing like a giant door, squishing Plasmus against a nearby building. Before Plasmus could recollect himself, her dark matter morphed onto the other side of him and forced him against another building right across the street, giving the mother and child enough time to get to safety.

"Hell hath no wrath… like a woman who has spent some alone time with Beast Boy!" Cyborg smirked.

Beast Boy sneered at him, "Yeah, and for the good of all mankind. Maybe we should never mention anything about that, ever again!"

Cyborg dodged a piece of Plasmus that flew by, "Deal!" And with that he converted his arm into the Sonic Cannon and joined the fray with Beast Boy following right behind him as a tiger.

Beat Boy leapt up and clawed at Plasmus's arm while Cyborg gave him a healthy dosage from his Sonic Cannon right in the part of his body that most closely resembled his face. Reforming from the attack, Plasmus gripped Beast Boy with his other arm and ploughed him into a wall, attempting to drown Beast Boy in his own gunk. Beast Boy was saved as Starfire fired off a particularly large Star Bolt, severing Plasmus's arm. The gunk around Beast Boy gave slack and sunk to the ground, leaving Beast Boy, in his human form, gasping for air.

Robin came to his side, "You okay, Beast Boy?"

"I almost swallowed some, but I'm okay."

"Good, get back in the fight! Plasmus never goes down easy, especially when he gets his hands on… oh NO!"

They all look on at an overturned tanker truck a block away, which clearly read "Toxic Waste" on the side.

"Titans! Keep Plasmus away from that tanker!" Robin ordered.

Beast Boy leaped off the ground and morphed into a cheetah to outrun Plasmus who was already making a break for the tanker. Skidding in front of the tanker, Beast Boy morphed into a sperm whale to completely cut Plasmus off. Plasmus was further halted by a full assault from both Cyborg's and Starfire's energy attacks. Screeching in pain, Plasmus drained itself into a manhole and shot out from another on the opposite side of Beast Boy and the tanker. Just as he was about to dive at the tanker, he slammed head on into a wall of dark matter. At this point, Beast Boy had returned to human form. As Plasmus oozed to the ground, Raven chanted "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" to enclose the dark matter around the tanker and levitate it away from him.

"Good work Raven," Robin commented.

"Please keep him occupied," Raven requested, "This is very heavy and I need to concentrate."

Relentless in his pursuit, Plasmus flung a chunk of himself straight at Raven while he pulled himself back together. It flew by most of the unexpected Titans. But Robin, with is honed reflexes, tired to kick the sludge away from Raven. But the disembodied sludge corkscrewed around Robin's leg and hit Raven at full force, which caused Raven to lose her concentration. This resulted in the tanker dropping to the street like an egg on the kitchen floor, and Plasmus was all too eager to gobble up the toxic mess.

"Great! No he's fighting on a full stomach!" Cyborg yelled.

"This is not good!" Robin stated, "Everyone! Go on the offensive, we cant' let him get away now!"

Though they tried to follow Robin's orders, Plasmus had become twice as hard to take down, enduring sonic blasts, exploding discs, star bolts, and dark matter. Beast Boy tried to get a few good hits in by morphing into a T-Rex, but Plasmus wrestled him and pinned him to the ground. Trapped under the sludge once more, Beast Boy returned to human form to see Plasmus baring his fangs and drooling over the small, green changeling.

"Beast Boy," Robin yelled as he ran to save his friend. But then something happened that no one was expecting. Out from the direction of the lake, a giant icicle, about the size of a minivan, came catapulting towards the battle and impaled Plasmus through the side of the head. What was more surprising was that a young teenage girl, working with the momentum, splintered out from the icicle and skilfully, landed in a crouched position on the ground. Everyone stood around dumbfounded. Beast Boy managed to scamper to his feet and stutter the word, "T-T-Terra?"

As the girl stood up, Plasmus, with shards of ice in his body, turned to flatten the mystery girl with his giant fist. But the girl dodged under his fist and spun around to face him. "I wonder what your freezing point is?" She smirked. Plasmus then tried to pound her with both fists but then his arms staggered to a halt. She glared at him and a blue light enveloped her eyes. Plasmus's arms then began to crystallize from the shards of ice stuck in his flesh. This then spread to the rest of his body. He struggled to move but the mystery girl strengthened her concentration until he had completely frozen over. She then, out of great effort, ripped Plasmus's frozen body in half, letting the sleeping man within fall to the ground.

With frozen pieces of Plasmus littering the street, the girl stepped up to the Titans, "Hope you don't mind, I just thought you could use some help."

Everyone was still standing around with their jaws on the floor and their eyes as wide as saucers, "Terra?" they all asked at the same time.

The girl scoffed, "Man, people are always getting us mixed up. I'm Isis, Terra's twin sister. Speaking of which, you don't happen to know where she is do you?"

Author's Notes:  
Another chapter up, yay. So how did you all like this one? I think I tipped my hat a bit to all you BB/Rae fans out there. And as for the other half of this chapter, what can I say? I just love to write action scenes- I hope I didn't confuse you with all that was going on in it though. Well, nothing more to say at this moment so… R&R, bye.


	3. Once Bitten, Twice Shy

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 3: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

"What? Why can't I come in?" Isis pouted as she stood outside the Tower with the Teen Titans around her. She had traveled there with them but now Raven blocked her path.

"Why are you so eager to get into our tower?" Raven glared in a clearly accusing manner.

Isis took her look with a bit of confusion, "Um, because it's getting dark outside and I thought that you guys could help me find my sister."

"We never said that we would do anything of the sort!" Raven sneered.

"Fine! You know what? Screw you guys! I'll find my sister on my own, thank you very much!"

"Now just wait a minute ladies!" Cyborg stepped in between the two girls exchanging venomous stares; "This is my tower so I decide whom we welcome in. And I see no reason to shut her out."

"What?" Raven turned her anger towards Cyborg, "Didn't you learn your lesson from last time? I am not going to go through the same thing again!"

"Listen! This is not the same girl we're talking about here!"

"She looks like her, she sounds like her, she acts like her, and I don't want her anywhere near me!"

"You're being prejudice!" Cyborg scolded.

"Well, I'm sorry, but after what Terra did, you can't expect me to welcome someone just like her into our home!"

"Both of you stop talking NOW!" Starfire yelled louder than both of them combined, at this point Isis had completely backed away from the feud that was totally about her, "I cannot believe what I am hearing from you Raven. It is wrong of us judge Isis by the actions of her sister's… I know that none of you would hold me accountable for Blackfire's wrongdoings, so why is it that you can judge Isis in such a way?"

Raven looked at her friends in shock, studying their faces only to find that everyone was against her on this. She then turned away from them all and reluctantly uttered the words, "I'm sorry, Isis. It was wrong of me to treat you that way." Though she honestly tried, she couldn't make it sound like she meant it.

"No… you don't have to apologize," Isis said with a strange tone of understanding as she motioned away from the group, "I get this kind of thing all the time. Ever since we were born, Terra would cause trouble on a grant scale with her powers, and I was always guilty by association. I can tell that she must have caused a great deal of hardship to you guys. So… it's alright, she's probably moved on to another city by now, I'll be on my way."

She turned to leave but Robin placed a hand on her shoulder, "No Isis, I'm afraid that it's more complicated than that. Look, I'm inviting you in, but only because there are some things that will take a while to explain… and others that you should be sitting down when you hear."

"Thanks, you're probably the first people in a long time who didn't treat me like the plague," She glanced slightly over to Raven with contempt, "But, wasn't there a green guy with you?"

"You mean Beast Boy? Sensors show that he already returned to the Tower," Cyborg explained, "Yeah, sorry he didn't stick around for introductions, let's just say that there was something between him and Terra… this must be kind of awkward for him."

"Wow, so that's why he was chasing me yesterday. I just thought he was another angry person wanting revenge for something my sister had done."

Raven was about to give some malicious remark but Starfire cut her off, "Enough chitting of the chat. It is getting late. We should cease standing around outside and welcome our new friend into our home!"

"I'm her friend?" Isis asked Robin under her breath.

"She thinks of anyone who doesn't try to kill us as her friend," Robin smiled, "It's an endearing quality."

Once they were within the Tower, Cyborg gave Isis the grand tour, "Down that hall we have the medical sector, and over here we have the main room where we spend most of our hanging out time, a… oh, Beast Boy, there you are." The changeling in question was sitting silently on the couch. Facing away from the entrance, he didn't acknowledge their presence. Cyborg rubbed the back of his head while Isis looked on in curiosity, "Well, yeah, maybe it's better if we skip this part of the tour." But Isis ignored him and walked right over to Beast Boy.

She looked over the ledge of the couch to find that Beast Boy was deep in thought, looking over a small collection of photos that were taken of him and Terra together. "Wow, she looks so happy," She commented, which snapped Beast Boy out of his trance.

"Whoa? What? Who?" Beast Boy asked in surprise.

Isis couldn't help giggle a bit as she boldly leapt over and plopped down right beside Beast Boy, leaning in to admire the pictures, "She must have meant something special to you. Listen, I'm sorry I ran away from you yesterday. I've gotten in the habit of running when people start to give chase. By the way, I don't think we've been properly introduced, I'm Isis," She extended her hand towards him for a friendly handshake.

Beast Boy reluctantly took the offer, "Uh, hi, I'm Beast boy." He said with caution.

"Cool, I saw what you could do in battle, pretty amazing stuff… You know, it's funny. Everywhere Terra has run to, and I've come in after to clean up the mess, I've never met people who were like friends to her," she took a photograph in hand, "And it looks like you were more than just a friend to her… thank you."

Beast Boy began to blush and then noticed that the rest of the Titans were standing right behind them, "Ahem, are we interrupting something?" Cyborg asked in a disapproving tone. Beast Boy then noticed that he was still holding Isis's hand, he screeched out of embarrassment as he let go. Isis smiled a bit but then saw that the majority of the people in the room did not appreciate her approach to their friend.

"You wanted to talk about your sister?" Robin asked with a loss of patience, "Then let's talk." He walked around to the front of the couch and sat in it, "Alright, long story short. When we first met her about a year ago, she was a drifter and had some trouble controlling her powers. She left us soon after to train on her own, then returned to become part of the team. She helped us out in a lot of battles. She was a good friend and a valued team member."

"You keep saying 'was', where is she now?" Isis asked.

"She died... saving our lives." Robin explained, recounting how Terra had selflessly sacrificed herself to save them all. Raven whirled around at Robin's words, glaring at him with an expression of sharp disapproval. She saw him mouth the word "Later" to her. Raven's scowl deepened, and she turned her back, her cape snapping behind her, as though to say everything she wanted to. Several nearby books toppled off a shelf as Raven walked past it, which Starfire discretely tried to pick up.

"She… she's dead?" Isis asked through a lump in her throat.

"She's not dead!" Beast Boy insisted. He had been silent for the retelling but now he was going to give his say, "And don't tell her otherwise! The only problem is that you guys have given up on finding a cure!"

"Beast Boy, please don't make this any harder for her," Robin pleaded.

"Wait, what cure? For what?" Isis asked with a bit of hope in her eyes.

Cyborg sighed, hoping that this wouldn't come up, "Okay, the jury's still out on this, but we thought at the beginning that we could reverse the process and de-petrify her body. Honestly, we poured all of our resources into it but came up with nothing."

"De… petrify?" Isis cocked her head.

"She has been turned into stone," Starfire explained sadly, "By her own powers. That's how she died."

Isis's eyes went wide and a chill ran down her spine. She shifted her gaze as she ran rapidly through her thoughts. A slight curl ran up the side of her lip, "The Gaia," She whispered under her breath with a hint of excitement. She then caught herself and looked up at the people surrounding her. To her relief, no one seemed to pay mind to her revelation, "Um, hey, can I… um, you know, pay her a visit?" Everyone looked at her, "You know, for closure."

"She's kind of in a hard to get to place that's a very long walk away from here," Robin explained, "But if it'll help you, we'll bring you to her… tomorrow, if nothing comes up that is."

"Something always comes up." Raven said flatly, rolling her eyes.

Beast Boy scoured at her and then turned to eagerly comfort Isis, "Don't worry, as soon as we get the time, I'll personally take you down to visit your sister. Until then, you can totally stay here. You know, we even made a room for Terra, I'm sure you can bunk there."

"Really?" Isis said with glee, "You don't know how much this means to me. Thank you!" She finished by hugging him. Beast Boy practically melted in her arms. Starfire smiled blissfully at this union, Raven had already left the room before she lost control, and Robin pondered for a moment before calling Cyborg over to a corner of the room to discuss something that was concerning him.

Later on, Beast Boy introduced Isis to Terra's room, left untouched for an entire year, "Here you go. Um, sorry it's a bit dusty in here."

"No problem, it's real nice of you to help me like this, you're very sweet." Isis smiled. Beast Boy blushed at her. Then, to his surprise, she gave him a peck on the cheek, "Goodnight," and with that she closed the door.

Beast Boy stood there outside the door with his hand on his cheek and a grin spread across his face. He then began to make his way down the hall humming happily with a skip in his step. Given that he was completely self-absorbed, he never saw the attack coming form the fork in the hallway. Dark matter gripped him by his ankles and wrists and threw him up against the wall, upside-down no less. Raven emerged from the darkness.

"You stupid, shallow, two-faced little pile of raging hormones! I don't know how you can live with yourself!" Beast Boy tried to respond form his awkward position but Raven willed the dark matter to laps over his mouth, "Cyborg was right, she looks like her, she sounds like her, she even acts liker her, but Beast Boy, she is not Terra. You told me that you would wait for her forever, that you'd never forget her! And how long did it take you to start drooling over her sister the moment she weaseled herself past our doors? I want you to think about her Beast Boy, I want you to think about Terra every time you stare into Isis's face. And know that you've betrayed her; that you've given up on her the moment another pretty blonde batted her eyes at you. Now I'll say this once and only once, she is NOT a replacement or a second chance for what you had with Terra! She is a different person entirely, and I… don't…like…her!"

Beast Boy muffled some sort of response and Raven reluctantly freed his mouth, "Why should you like her?" he retorted. "You never liked Terra! You always hated her! That's why you never bothered trying to find a cure for her! And while we're on the subject, wasn't it you who was telling me that I needed to move on with my life. That I had to accept the fact that Terra is dead and move on? Well I am, okay? Nobody wants to help Terra! But I can help her sister!"

"Looks to me like you're more interested in helping yourself to her sister."

"You know what Rae? I think you're jealous!"

"Jealous of what, the fact that Isis is practically throwing herself on you? Or that everyone is giving so much attention to this Terra look-a-like?"

"Take your pick." Beast Boy sneered.

Raven narrowed her eyes at him, "Goodnight Beast Boy," She said with malice as she slipped back into the darkness.

"Um, Raven, are you going to let me down?" Beast Boy asked but got no answer, "Come on Rae, I know you can't hold this all night. You have to let me down sometime!" And with that the dark matter pinning him to the wall abruptly disappeared, letting him fall, head first, onto the floor.

In another part of the building, Cyborg approached a door marked "Lab". He looked around to make sure that no one was around then entered to find Robin there, waiting for him, "Did you get the hair?" Robin asked impatiently.

Cyborg produced a long strand of blonde hair, "Pulled it off the back of the couch, now you want to tell me why we're doing this?"

Robin took the hair and held it up to the light, "Do we still have Terra's DNA on file?" He asked, ignoring Cyborg's protest.

"Of course," Cyborg assured him, "What? Are you telling me that you don't think that Isis is really Terra's sister?"

"I have no reason to doubt that," Robin answered without looking at him, "but there is something that's bothering me. They're twins, but their powers are so different."

"They both have telekinesis on a specific element, I say that counts as a twin thing. Whether it's ice or earth doesn't make that big of a difference."

"It's not that," Robin objected, "Isis mentioned that they were born with those powers, which makes them natural born medahuman twins."

"Aaaand?" Cyborg pressed.

"As far as I know, all medahuman twins, especially identical ones, have equal or shared powers, even if there are slight differences."

"Yeah, like Mas Y Menos, or if you want to go way back, the Wonder Twins. What are you getting at here?"

"Did you see how much Isis had to concentrate in that battle?"

Author's Notes:  
Ooh, the plot thickens. Interesting isn't it? The Titans are completely divided on whether or not they trust Isis. While Beast Boy is falling for her, Starfire is just happy to have another person she can call her friend, Robin believes he has reasons not to trust her, Raven just all out hates her, and Cyborg is sitting on the fence. Before I go, I would like to make a request concerning the reviews for this story. Now there is no use reviewing this story for the sole purpose of telling me to update soon. I'll update when I update, so live with it. What I'm saying here people, is that if you are going to take the time to write a review for this story, at least give it a proper review. You know, tell me what you like or didn't like and why. To read responses like that will make me more interested in updating than just demanding me to update soon. Okay, bye.


	4. Frost Bite

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 4: Frost Bite

"Robin," the dreary feminine voice called to him, "Robin!" She called louder.

"Huh (snort) what, who?" Robin sprung he head off the laboratory desk, a piece of paper stuck to his forehead, "Raven? W-what time is it?" He asked as he shifted some documents around on the desk and quickly swiped the paper from his face.

Raven rolled her eyes, "It's morning. I tried to knock on your door but got no answer. Then Cyborg said something about you being paranoid. And here I find you doing… whatever you do. Look, I want to talk to you about this whole Isis thing."

"Ah ha," Robin sounded disinterested as he organized all of the papers into a folder and tapped the edge of the folder on the desk to put the papers in a nice, neat formation.

Raven's eye twitched, "Look, I can understand why you didn't tell Isis about Terra's betrayal, if only for the notion that it'll give her ideas. The fact is, I don't trust her one bit. Everything seems too convenient. First she shows up in the middle of battle, then she welcomes herself into our home, and then she wraps Beast Boy around her little finger. And what's worse is that everyone here seems to be just standing by, watching this all happen again! I'll make this perfectly clear Robin, I respect you as a leader, and as a friend, but if you don't get off your lazy… what is this?" her ranting was subsided as she glanced at the computer screen. The image of two strands of DNA, split screening each other, was displayed on it, one labelled 'Terra', the other 'Isis'.

Robin looked over to the computer screen and turned it off, "Reasonable cause for suspicion," He said flatly.

Raven's eyes widened and a rather surprised smile spread across her lips, "You don't trust her either, do you?" She couldn't help but grin.

"Of course, I don't trust her anymore than I can throw her," Robin thought for a second then smirked, "Actually, she's really scrawny and I'm pretty good at throwing people. So maybe that expression doesn't apply."

"I bet I could throw her farther," Raven said under her breath, "So what is all of this then?"

Robin took a disc out of the computer then locked it in a drawer along with the documents before rising from his chair, "Okay, Cyborg's the only other one here who's in on this. But I think that there is more to all of this than Isis is telling us. A lot more."

"Like what?" Raven asked.

Robin sighed in defeat, "I don't know yet, but there is something there; something in Terra's DNA that's not in Isis's… no, scratch that. It's not in her DNA, more like… around it. It's… it's like the air in front of our faces. We know it's there we just can't see it."

Raven cocked an eyebrow, "Have you been sniffing some of the beakers in here?"

"Well, this place could probably use some better ventilation… but really, it's mainly the sheer difference in their power levels that I'm looking at. Maybe what I need is to get some field test data from her. That might give me something more to work with."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"Simple," Robin answered as he moved towards the door. He then stopped at the door way and smiled at Raven, "Ask her to join the team."

The closing door took the impact of dark matter, but Raven was only deterred for a moment, using her power to come through the wall. She quickly snagged a retreating Robin in an attempt to force some answers out of him. "Are you insane!" Raven asked, shouting. The groaning of metal from the wall beside her alerted her to the fact that she was not containing herself as well as she had thought. "We've already given her free run of the place, like her sister before her. And now you want to let her join up, give her the chance to stab us in the back too! I suppose I'm answering my own questions, because the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!"

No longer in the sound proof sanctity of the lab, Robin responded to her in a whisper, "Good, you just keep doing what you're doing."

A puzzled look slapped onto Raven's face, "Um, you… want to run that by me again?"

"Isis sees you as apprehensive and mean," Robin boldly stated, "To do otherwise might make her suspicious. So, even though it's part of the plan, keep acting like you are against her in every way."

"No acting required," Raven sneered, "You had better know what you're doing."

Later that day, after breakfast, The Titans congregated at the outdoor training field with Isis at the starting point, a Titan communicator clipped to her belt. "What exactly I'm I supposed to do here?" Isis asked, yelling up at the teens standing around the control panel overlooking the entire course.

"It's just a little training exercise," Robin explained over the speaker, "You're part of the team now, and we've all got to be at the top of our game. Don't worry, it'll be easy."

"Just one problem," Isis shouted back at the top of her lungs.

Robin shook his head, "You have a communicator, try using it," He suggested, to save the girl a lot of effort.

Isis took the communicator from her belt and tried again, "One problem. I freeze liquids and manipulate ice. But this course is bone dry, how am I supposed to use my powers to get through it?"

"That's why this course runs along the edge of the island, so you have plenty of water to work with."

"Don't worry, you'll do fine." Beast Boy assured.

"Yeah, sure," Isis nervously said to herself as she ended the communication.

Cyborg took over the speaker system, "Training simulation starts in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!"

Isis started off at a full sprint down towards the first marker of the course, only to be halted as a large steel door closed off her path. She then threw her attention onto the coastline and willed a large pillar of ice to rise from the depths. Gesturing with her hands, she summoned it over to her then used it as a battering ram against the door. The first attempt only left a dent; the second attempt created a crack between the panels but broke off a large portion of her ice pillar. Working as quickly as possible, she willed the broken shards that fell off the pillar to form into a wedge in the crack. With that in place, she gave the door one last good ram, widening the crack enough for her to squeeze through.

"Truly a marvellous display," Starfire clapped.

"I would have just ripped the door in half," Raven objected.

"Couldn't you just phase through it?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

The next marker of the course called for Isis to navigate through a sentry of motion detecting turrets. The first one sprung from the ground and caught Isis by surprise. She barely dodged the thick, sticky substance that was spat at her. The second turret popped out in the path of her evasion, she scrambled to change direction but the substance fired from the turret snagged her by the feet. She fell down on the ground then turned to freeze the substance off of her. To her surprise, this substance actually had an easily obtainable freezing point. Shattering the crystallized restraint, she got to her feet and continued to run down the path with constantly emerging turrets nipping at her feet. She was doing fine until one turret popped out right in front of her, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. Trapped between oncoming fire from all directions, she circled her arms around her body and caused all enemy fire to freeze and be suspended in air before they all hit her. She then threw them all back to the turrets, disabling all that were present on the field. She was about to move on until one last turret, different from the others, came out of the ground to guard the next marker of the course. Isis stared it down until it fired off a constant, heavy stream of the substance. Isis met the substance by freezing it as it came at her. Eventually, and at great effort, she managed to work the crystallization up the stream and into the spout where she was able to tear the machine apart form the inside. She breathed heavily but with great satisfaction as she cross over of the next part of the course.

"She seems to know what she's doing," Cyborg spoke up.

"Yeah, but she's already getting tired," Robin observed before clicking on the speaker, "That's good Isis, only on more marker to go. The course will end when you defeat your opponent."

Isis stepped into the final part of the course, which was revealed to be a large circular arena, enclosed by high steel walls and flooded with a deep pool of water. She bravely walked into the arena, stepping onto the surface of the water, a task effortless to her as she made the water solidify under her feet. Once she had progress in a given distance, the gate behind her slammed shut and a large metal cylinder exploded from the depth of the water. The waves it created nearly caused Isis to loose her balance but she froze more water around her feet and crouched down into a battle-ready position. The cylinder hovered in place for a moment with a dull hum until it quickly rotated around to reveal a glowing red eye that instantly locked onto Isis. She felt a growing warmth melting the ice around her and she quickly leapt from her iceberg as a concentrated heat beam obliterated her frosty creation. Landing on another iceberg that she quickly created on the opposite side of the cylinder, she launched a barrage of icicles at her opponent. But the cylinder easily evaded her attack by diving back into the water. Isis frantically looked around but the water was too deep and dark to see anything. Then the cylinder shot out form right under her, shattering her creation and sending her flailing into the air. Regaining her bearings in mid air, she looked over to see the cylinder's eye readying another heat beam aimed right at her. She responded by willing a large sheet of ice to emerge from the water to take the impact from the heat beam as she fell into the pool.

She disappeared into the depths for a while. All of the Titans looked on with concern. "She's drowning! We've got to get her out!" Beast Boy exclaimed as he reached for the control panel. But Cyborg gripped his hand and shook his head. Just then a large icicle shot out from the water, which the cylinder promptly dodged and obliterated. Then another came up for the cylinder to dodge and blast, then another, and another. Soon the cylinder was so overwhelmed with constantly appearing targets that it ran out of room to move, it's only option was to dive back into the water. But just as it was about to do so, one last giant icicle shot up from directly underneath. Impaling it from bottom to top. The red eye flickered then dimmed out. And finally the icicle that finished it off exploded, ripping the cylinder into pieces, revealing that Isis was hidden within.

Beast Boy and Starfire cheered ecstatically while the rest of the team clapped a little. Beast Boy then leapt from the control platform as pistons lowered it to ground level and ran over to the opening gate to congratulate Isis. The girl emerged from the arena on a floating ice platform then collapsed onto the dry ground in exhaustion. Starfire came to her side as well to give the wet girl as fresh towel to dry herself. "You… you guys re… really play hard, don't you?" She panted heavily as Beast Boy helped her to her feet.

"Work hard, play hard." He grinned, supporting her weight a little.

"Wonderful, Isis. You're centre is most durable!" Starfire smiled. This caused everyone to look at her awkwardly. She caught them looking and became self-conscience, "Um, is that not how the expression goes?"

"Hard core," Raven corrected with disdain, "You're trying to say that she's hard core."

"Isn't that what I said?" Starfire cocked her head.

Everyone laugh, except for Starfire whom still didn't get it. Afterwards the Titans retreated back to the tower. Robin and Raven hanged behind "Did you get what you needed?" Raven asked in a whisper.

"Perhaps," Robin answered as he flipped through some pages on a clipboard, "I'll have to compare it with the rest of the data later."

A while later, a refreshed Isis wandered aimlessly down the hallways, "Why is this place so huge, doesn't only, like, five people live here?" She stopped casually in front of a door marked 'Lab' and thought to herself how cool all of that science stuff is. So she explored inwards. Strolling around, she peered through the various beakers and dared herself to touch large machines that appeared as if she would have gotten in trouble for doing so.

She walked over, sat herself in a desk chair, and began spinning around, "He-he, this place is so cool!" She then noticed that her foot clipped the edge of a paper that was sticking out of a drawer in the desk. She would have disregarded it except that she saw her name in the corner. She leaned over and tried to pull the drawer open but it was locked tight, so she slowly and carefully shimmied the paper out of the drawer until she held the entire thing in her hands. She read aloud the contents to discover that it was about her and her morning training course, "Isis shows excellent control and range, probably the result of rigorous training on her part." She stopped and gleamed at the flattery but then her eyes narrowed as she read on, "However, her stamina gets used up pretty quickly and her concentration seems delayed and somewhat limited as compared to… her sibling's?"

Anger enveloped her at the thought of being compared to her sibling so casually, and she looked down to see that the entire paper had been frozen solid, the frosty touch of the document stinging her hands and leaving a raw mark. She dropped it with a start, and the report hit the floor and shattered into four pieces. Isis cursed, knowing she had just left evidence of her intrusion.

She rubbed her hands together to bring some warmth into them, frowning. Now she didn't have much choice. They would surely notice the missing report, and no one would have any motivation to see it other than her. She scowled, wondering what to do, when the answer came to her easily. She walked to the sink, picking up a discarded beaker and filled it with water. She then splashed it against the lock on the drawer as hard as she could, trying to get some of the liquid into the crevasses. She repeated the process twice before she was certain she had enough. Using a small amount of her power, she expanded the water that had drained inside the keyhole into ice, causing the locking mechanism to burst. She easily opened the ruined drawer, desperate to learn what else her new "friends" were thinking about her.

Some time later, Robin progressed down that very hallway, destined to continue his work in the lab. With his attention lost in the pocket computer that he was beeping away at, it took him far too long to realize that he could see his breathe hanging in the air, and even longer for it to dawn on him the message of this omen. Dropping the device in a start, he sprinted down the remainder of his path. Skidding in front of the door, he opened it and ventured inside. Doing so nearly caused him to fall on his back, as the floor was excessively slippery. Gripping the doorframe for support, he reached over to flick on the light. What lay out before him was the remains of a laboratory that appeared as if it was hit by a hailstorm. Long running tests ruined, delicate machines rendered useless, but his chief concern was certain documents that he kept under lock and key. Sliding over to his desk, he saw that the drawer was broken open and all of his sensitive documents lay scattered around the desk and floor. The computer screen, broken off its base but still clinging on by a cluster of wires, dimly flickered the image of the twin's DNA comparison. He shivered, both for the cold and for the horror, as he reached for his communicator, "Cyborg!"

"Yeah?" his comrade responded in a moment.

"We have a security breach, where's Isis?"

"Isis? She's… she's in the lab with you."

Robin looked around to find her discarded communicator on the floor, "Of course," He muttered to himself before addressing Cyborg again, "She ditched her communicator… Wait, where's Beast Boy?"

"He left the tower a little while ago. You want me to track him?"

"Don't bother, I'm sure that I know where both of them are going. Get Raven and Starfire together, we're going to visit Terra!"

He abruptly shut off the communication, turned around, and scoured at himself for letting this happen. He then looked up at the wall he was facing for the first time and backed into the desk in shock at what he saw. Covering the entire wall, written in frost and with large, jagged letters, was the words "THE GAIA" repeated over and over and over again.

Robin swallowed hard, "I just hope that we get there before it's too late."

Author's Notes:  
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy… hehehehehe. Oh that felt good. So now it's kind of out in the open that Isis is a manipulative psychopath, eh? I bet you're all wondering what 'The Gaia' is right now. Well that's my little secret. And you'll just have to wait for the next update to find out Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! Okay, maniacal laughter aside, I really liked how this chapter turned out, getting good dialogue from the opening Raven and Robin scene, and leaving a chilling premise at the end. I know that Isis's training scene was a bit wordy, but I don't feel that it was a bad thing. Okay, that's all for now. R&R as always.


	5. False Rebirth

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 5: False Rebirth

Deep beneath the city streets, two lone teenagers traveled through a dark and winding cave, "It's been a while since I've been down here," Beast Boy said, "But I'm positive this is the right path."

"I'm just glad that I have you here to guide me, I'd be lost down here without you," Isis smiled as she clung affectionately to Beast Boy's arm. Which only served to boost his ego and further twine him around her little finger.

"You know this place used to be the lair of some bad dude. But he was no match for the Green Wonder," he boasted. He then contemplated for a moment, "Hey, are you sure Robin said it was okay to come down here? What if they need us?"

"Don't worry about it, the all mighty leader gave us both a some leave time to visit my sister," she lied, "After all, things have been quiet today in terms of evil doers."

"Well, sorry for being a worrywart, but I'm going to check in just to make sure," he said as he reached for his communicator.

Isis quickly reached her hand over and gripped his. Had he been allowed to use the device, he would have found it rendered useless from the sabotage work Isis had done on it much earlier, "C'mon, Beast Boy. You wouldn't go and spoil this moment we're having, would you?"

"Just a quick call and I'll-" He was cut off as Isis gave him a playful kiss on the cheek.

Pulling away, she grinned seductively at him, "Now what were you saying?"

Cupids danced around Beast Boy's head, "Me? I wasn't saying anything."

Isis pulled the gleefully dazed Beast Boy along the path until they reached their destination. The rusted, old remains of a large steel door, which Beast Boy single handedly rammed off its hinges a year ago, stood before them. "Well, this is the place," Beast Boy announced. The two of them ventured though to stand in the presence of the statue of a girl, the spitting image of the icy diva Beast Boy walked in with. "And here's Terra, your sister, as she looked the very day that she saved the entire city," He breathed an exalted breath, "Doesn't she look wonderful?"

The sound of someone calling his name came so faintly down the path they took that, even with his animal-like ears, Beast Boy didn't acknowledge it.

"Thank you," Isis said as a grin, perhaps too wide, spread across her face.

The call for Beast Boy's name came again and this time her heard it. "Robin?" he asked as he turned around. In this distracted moment he didn't see the crazed look in the girl's eye.

"Thank you for leaving her like this… in a state where she can no longer resist me."

"I could have sworn that I heard… what did you say?" At this point it was clear that Robin was screaming Beast Boy's name as he, and the rest of the Titans, came running down the path. Beast Boy was stuck in between listening for Robin's voice again and paying attention to the disturbing things this girl was saying.

"But mostly… I want to thank you for being so gullible!" She gripped him by the shoulder and spin him around to hold him tightly next to her, "It's been fun playing around with my sister's little boy toy. You've been a real treat!" She kissed him violently, making Beast Boy's mind spin in confusion. Her lips were soft, inviting, poisonous. Something about this felt wrong, but he couldn't bring himself to back away. It was her scent, the feel of her hair, the sound of her laugh, the way her scrawny form captivated him entirely. She was Terra. She was everything he had been mourning forever since he had lost her. Everything about her felt so good, so right.

Isis withdrew her lips, and Beast Boy's head swam in confusion and contentment. "Terra, that was..."

His blonde escort frowned at the comment, her thumb running over the cap of her water bottle and popping it in one swift movement. "You really should learn to tell your girlfriends apart!" She spat, dousing him with the bottle's contents. "Now get out of my face!" She grinned broadly, bringing the full brunt of her powers to bear on him. The water dripping from his clothes solidified in an instant, not only restricting his movements, but also turning him into an easy target for her powers.

Without touching him, she propelled him back towards the entrance just as the Teen Titans arrive, "Beast Boy! Watch out! Isis, she's-" Robin was cut off as the changeling in question came flying through and hit the entire team like a bowling ball. Before the heroes could get to their feet, Isis focused her energy on the rocks above the doorway, willing the water between the cracks to expand and solidify just enough to cause a cave in around the entrance. Locking the Titans out, and her, with her sister, in.

"Beat Boy! Are you hurt? What has the harlot done to you?" Starfire asked as she tried to shake him back to his senses. Frowning at her failed attempt to wake him from either the concussion or the confusion, she resulted in giving him an open hand slap across the face. Her excessive alien strength literally sent his head spinning.

Beast Boy snapped to attention, "W-What's going on?"

"Isis used you to get to Terra," Robin explained as he hastily lifted rocks out of the entrance, "She used all of us!"

"You mean… Raven was right?" He asked, feeling like an idiot.

"I'll save the 'I told you so's for later," Raven said as she used her power to aid Robin.

"Out of the way!" Cyborg converted his arm to the Sonic Cannon, "I'll blast that doorway open in no time!"

"No!" Robin pushed Cyborg's arm down, "An explosion like that would cause a second cave in! We'll have to do it by hand, and quickly! Whatever Isis has planned, it can't be good!"

Beast boy stood up, his aggression taking form, "Beast Boy?" Starfire asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

"No, no I'm not!" And with that he morphed into a gorilla, stepped right up to the cave in, and began flinging rocks out of the way faster than all of his friends combined. In no time he managed to work out a small gap just big enough to see through. Peering through the eyehole, he saw the girl who manipulated him and he let out a loud, beastly roar. The result of which shook the earth and caused gravel and dirt to fall from the ceiling.

"Beast Boy, calm down before you bury us alive!" Robin ordered.

Even though Beast Boy obeyed, he didn't pay attention to the team leader. Returning to human form, but with his eyes still fixated on the gap, he stepped back a few feet and said, "She's mine!" before he rushed the gap, jumped, and morphed into and ant to skilfully pass through onto the other side.

He turned into a wolf as he landed. "Beast boy!" Robin called through the gap, "Wait until we get through before you-" But the changeling didn't listen, blinded by rage, he took off in full force towards the icy witch.

"Don't worry Terra, it'll all be over soon," Isis spoke to her petrified sister as she reached her hands up and cupped them onto the statues cheeks, "At least in this form you won't feel any pain… not that you deserve it." The last part came out with pure malice as a blue light enveloped her eyes. Then, giving more effort than she usually would, the light collapsed inward, becoming glowing dots in the middle of her pupils bursting so much energy that it lost the blue pigment and became a bright white.

Whatever ritual Isis was performing was lost as a green wolf came barrelling down from behind her brandishing it's fangs and snarling wildly. Isis had to break her concentration and the grip on her sister in order to dodge out of harm's way. She didn't have time to get her footing as the wolf bounded off the base of the statue and leaped at her with full force, pinning her to the ground.

"Leave her alone!" Beast Boy screamed as he returned to human form, still holding the girl beneath him by the shoulders.

"You don't even know what you're getting yourself into you little freak!" Isis snarled, "So why don't you just run along and let me get what I came for!"

"I won't let her hurt her." Beast Boy growled.

Isis laughed spitefully and gave a coy grin, "Me? Hurt my own sister? I would never," then her grin became more devilish, "You on the other hand…" And with that she willed the contents in her other water bottle to freeze and expand, bursting the container apart and ploughing Beast Boy right in the side of the gut with the force of a sledge hammer.

Beast Boy rolled off of her, clutching his side in agony. Isis stood up and brushed the dirt from her arms, "Now you can either leave or stay down, but don't interfere again." She then stepped up to Terra to resume her ritual. But then a green tentacle stretched over, twined itself around her arm, and pulled her back. She turned around to face an octopus reaching another tentacle over to wrap around her free hand. "You just don't pay attention, do you?" she yelled as the blue light returned to her eyes and the cylinder of ice she used to attack him earlier levitated off the ground and flew right at her attacker. The ice clocked him right upside the head, sending him spinning back into his human form.

He regained his composure to see Isis, staring him down as she beckoned the ice to her front. Then, without a word, the ice cylinder broke into dozens of dart-like icicles which were let loose on the Titan. Beast Boy screeched and quickly transformed into a gnat to make himself the smallest target possible. Fortunately, he managed to slip through the barrage of icicles, which all shattered against the caved in entrance and fell out of reach.

Isis cursed under her breath as a panting Beast Boy resumed octopus form. She broke from her position, trying to outrun his tentacles. She jumped over the first and ducked under another, but the third caught her square in the ribs. She was flung back against the base of the statue, the wind knocked out of her. Her breath came in chokes, and Beast Boy used the opportunity to return to human form, his own breathing becoming laboured. He advanced on Isis, whose eyes widened as she saw him coming. Her eyes glistened with hatred. She was too close now to lose to the likes of her sister's puny little love slave.

"You know," Isis managed to force out between painful breaths, the burning in her lungs finally beginning to lessen, "you're really... starting to... tick... me... off."

"Good!" Beast Boy yelled at Isis, dragging the girl to her feet. "It's over Isis. You can't fight us without water, and I counted. You're fresh out of the ol' aqua."

Isis glowered at her captor, for the first time, afraid that she was out of options. But as she was being dragged towards the cave-in, she realized she had the green guy exactly where she wanted him. "You shouldn't be so overconfident." Isis spat, trying to get a rise out of him.

Beast Boy tightened his grip. "I'm not going to let you hurt Terra or any of my friends."

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing I don't need your permission!" Isis seized Beast Boy's arm with her left wrist, her eyes smouldering with intensity as she manipulated her power through his body. Beast Boy writhed in pain, his mouth opening and closing in howls of agony. His grip on her fell apart in less than a second, and he dropped to the ground, his back arching, and his body convulsing. Isis stood over her would-be captor, planting a shoe right in the centre of his chest and pressing down with a portion of her weight. "The human body is sixty-eight percent water. Did you know that? I just froze a good amount of that." She grinned. "Now, I'm no expert in biology, but I can't even begin to imagine how much that must sting." Beast Boy didn't respond with ordinary speech, merely a look that flashed hatred as he tried to control his involuntary reactions to what would doubtlessly become a lethal assault. "Now, don't you wish you had just stayed down?" Isis dug the heel of her shoe into his ribs, which made the changeling's eyes bulge.

"Hang on, we're almost through!" Robin yelled from the widened gap.

Isis responded with a devilish smile as she diverted her attention for only a moment to beckon more rocks to fall from above the entrance, setting back any attempt the Titan's had of interfering.

"Now, we want to make sure you're in your Sunday best for the show, don't we?" Isis swung Beast Boy's body up against the stone form of her sister, causing loose dust to fly everywhere. "There we are, front row centre." Her smile was haunting, her voice too reminiscent of the Terra he knew. She was enjoying every moment of this. "Now remember, no flash photography." She slugged him in the stomach. "No interrupting the star of this production." She followed up with a smack to his head, sending dirt clods flying out of his hair. "And most importantly, no calling out to your annoying friends!" She then gripped him by the wrists and forced them down to twin against Terra's. Beast Boy convulsed as his joints cracked. "Now sit back and watch," The blue light returned to her eyes, "The show is about to start."

"Back… off." An ominous voice echoed throughout the chamber.

"I thought I told you not to interfere!" she yelled back at the caved in entrance. But to her surprise, the rocks still held and no one was there. She then looked back in horror as stony a hand came up and gripped her by the face. Losing her concentration on the changeling, whom was now allowed to fall to the ground, Isis struggled to force the statue's hand off her face. Her mouth covered, she could only mumble and twist around, both her hands feverously clawing away at the statue's wrist. The statue, still looking upwards as it always had, now began to shake, gravel crumbling from the joint broken through in its shoulder. Its head began to stagger and convulse until it finally snapped downwards to face Isis, creating a fresh joint in the neck. It's eyes, never closed, suddenly illuminated with a bright yellow light that poured down the body through jagged veins, breathing life into all of its limbs.

"Leave… him… ALONE!" Terra yelled, the yellow light gleaming through her mouth. Two stone pillars jutted out from the far wall behind Terra, snaked around her and hit Isis at full force.

Isis flailed onto the ground, choking for air. She looked up to narrowly dodge a boulder that came at her with such force that it left a crater in its wake. She staggered to her feet only to be knocked down again by another stony attack from the side. Then barely managed to roll off of a slab of rock, which rose from beneath her, threatening to crush her against the ceiling. Landing roughly on the ground, she looked up to see her sister, now broken from her yearlong position, standing above her, her face a stone mask of anger. "Terra," Isis begged, "Please, wait! I'm your sister, remember?"

Terra narrowed her eyes, "I remember," and with that she stretched her arm down, gripped her twin by the neck, and threw her across the chamber, landing near the base where the statue once stood. As Isis hacked and cough to get her breath back, she noticed a frozen wood frog lying where the changeling had fallen. Glaring in hatred, she palmed the incapacitated Titan just as a stone hand emerged from the ground and gripped her foot, sending her flailing like a rag doll across the chamber, past her sister, and slammed against the cave in. She only managed to let out a snarl as Terra zoomed over and wrapped her hands around her sister's neck, viciously pressing her into the rocks.

"Ter…ra…p-pl…ease" Isis wheezed through the strangulation.

A slight flicker of mercy flashed in Terra's rage. "Go away and never come back!" She glowered at her sister before willing the rocks in the cave in to collapse inward, releasing her sibling form her grip and sending her falling backwards through the reopened entrance, the whole ordeal taking the Titans on the other side by complete surprise.

Isis flopped onto the ground then staggered to her feet. She looked at the surrounding Titans with panic and defeat as they simply looked back with shock and confusion. She then turned and ran away into the darkness of the path like a child who was bullied off the playground.

"Wow," Cyborg commented, "Did Beast Boy do that?"

"Um, Cyborg," Raven tapped him on the shoulder and pointed in Terra's direction.

He turned around to observe the golem girl down on her knees, staring at her hands, "What… what happened to me?" she asked out loud, "Why can't I feel anything?"

"Terra!" Robin called, walking towards her slowly. "Terra, you have to listen to me. I can explain everything. It'll be all right."

Terra shook her head back and forth rapidly, knowing that nothing could ever be all right again. She couldn't feel. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't taste, or even smell. Seeing and hearing came to her, but it was as though these sensations were through a filter. She could will her body to move, but she had to push through something that felt like a wall full of jell-o first. She sobbed as she traced the contours of her stony hands, unable to feel even the slightest response. Tears did not fall out of eyes. She stood up and ran towards the wall, repeatedly beating her fists against it in a desperate attempt to feel something, anything. But there was nothing. No pain. Not even a scratch on herself. Terra collapsed against the wall, falling to the floor. "What am I?" She choked, clutching her knees to her chest. "Please, someone tell me what I am!

Starfire crossed the distance between the Titans and poor Terra, sitting down beside the distraught girl. "You are alive." Starfire said simply.

"How can you call this alive?" Terra screeched.

"It is good to see you, Friend Terra. But you must not grieve for your condition. We will find a way to restore you to your normal self." Starfire looked directly into Raven's eyes. "We owe you this for saving our lives. We will return the favour."

Reluctant to bare more weight on the situation, Cyborg had to ask "Um… Where's Beast Boy?"

Shortly after, a battered and bruised Isis escaped to the surface through the mouth of a cave onto the beach. She leaned against the rocks and breathed heavily, glad to see the light again but hate filled that she could not gain what she desired. She then noticed something twitching in her closed hand and opened it to see the frozen tree frog of a Titan was beginning to thaw. But then she focused her energy and made the poor creature freeze over again. "Not quite yet," She cocked a smile, "You may have foiled my first attempt, but Terra _will_ hand the Gaia over to me willingly, and you'll make a very fine hostage."

Author's Notes:  
Quick little educational tidbit for those of you who are wondering why Beast Boy turned into a wood frog of all creatures when he was frozen. Well that's because a wood frog, native to Canada (my home and patriot land), is one of a very few species that can survive being totally frozen over and not sustain cell damage when it's thawed. We learn something new every day. Okay, enough of that educational stuff, now onto the actual story. Firstly, we all knew that Terra was going to come back in this story, but how many among you saw _that _coming? Eh? Eh? That's what I thought! And I guess I've shed just a little more light on that exactly the Gaia is, but it's still mainly a mystery. Well, I hope that Beast Boy's capture and Terra's false rebirth will get you guys excited for the next chapter. Until then, R&R as always.


	6. Lesser Evil

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 6: Lesser Evil

Somewhere in a slummish part of the city, an abandoned hockey rink sat in a state of disrepair. Within it, a certain green changeling was finally awakened to his surroundings. Once his vision had become clear, he would have bolted up at his unfamiliar environment save for the fact that his entire body felt like it had been mashed into a slushy machine, "Oooohhhoh, I think I have a brain freeze in my whole body." He groaned. The most he could figure out from his position was that he was lying on a hard wooden bench, covered with a fur coat (of which he only prayed wasn't real fur). His chamber was small, couldn't be more than 10 feet square, and all of the walls around him seemed to be made of solid concrete. The only light source being from the open doorway… "The door's open!" He thought to himself as he rolled over to try to stand, but only fell roughly on the ground, as his limbs were still terribly stiff and sore.

He moaned from the pain of his ribs hitting the hard floor as an earlier injury came back to haunt him. He then noticed that a thin figure eclipsed the light from the doorway. "So you've finally rolled out of bed," Isis mocked. Beast Boy cringed as he saw that the girl was reaching for a water bottle at her belt. But to his surprise, all that she did was neatly place the bottle down on the ground beside his head. "Drink it, you're very dehydrated." Beast Boy looked on in confusion as she motioned to close the door, "I'll see about getting you some food," She said with absolutely no hospitality, "Oh, and if you have any ideas about transforming into something really big to smash out of here, I suggest you look up," Beast Boy followed her finger and gasped as he saw that the ceiling was littered with razor sharp icicles prone to run him though if he were to provoke them.

"Wait!" Beast Boy spoke up, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're no good to me if you die," Isis answered bluntly before she closed the door and fastened several locks, leaving him in utter darkness.

Left to his own devices, the first thought that crossed Beast Boy's mind is how to escape. He gripped the water bottle then rolled over onto his back, bringing the bottle up to his face, but not to drink. Robin once told him that when forming an escape plan, one needs all of the tools he can get. He then thought about the other tools at his disposal, that being the fur coat and the icicles hanging above his head. Nothing of particular intelligence graced his thoughts on the matter. Until he recalled some old spy movie when the hero, in a similar predicament, faked death to get the guard's attention. It then occurred to him that Isis needed him alive, yet at the same time left him with a death trap to keep him from getting any big ideas. He then formed a brilliant plan. Well, brilliant for his capacity. But it all had to be executed at the right moment, when Isis would come back to check on him. All that he needed to do at the moment was pull the fur coat over him and try to rest his body while keeping one ear open. He needed to be ready and able to transform if this was going to work.

Starfire cringed as a flash of lightning crossed the sky, despite carrying an umbrella, she had been out in the storm long enough to get plenty wet and cold. She then noticed that her communicator was chiming and she floated over to the shelter of a nearby building, shifted her umbrella against her shoulder, and opened up her communicator, "Yes, Robin?"

"Have you found anything, Starfire?" Robin asked, his image and voice coming out with a bit of static from the storm.

Starfire shook her head, "I am sorry, but I have found nothing that will lead us to Isis or Beast Boy," she then wiped some snot from her running nose, "May I come home now?"

Robin was about to give her permission when Raven chimed over the other line. Her image just as garbled as Robin's, "Are you saying that you can survive floating around in the sub-zero vacuum of space, but you can't take a little thunder storm?"

Robin diverted his attention to Raven, "And how are things on your end?"

"There is nothing on the beach that tells where she went. Or if there was, it's probably washed away by now."

"I doubt Isis is the kind to leave footprints anyways," Robin deduced, "Maybe we should try looking around the warehouses at the harbour. Unless you want to come in and-"

Raven cut him off, "No, I can keep looking. You just work on getting some answers from that sister of her's."

"You mean Terra," Robin corrected. But Raven cut out without a response. He shook his head then turned back to Starfire, "If you want, you can come in now and I'll take over your shift."

Starfire gave a "Thank you," before ending the communication.

Back at the Tower, Robin rubbed his eyelids as he placed his communicator back on his belt. Heavy rain slid down the large window of the common area like a waterfall as Robin made his way over to the semicircle couch where the golem girl sat with her knees up to her chest, staring distantly off into nothing.

"How are you feeling?" Robin asked as he sat down.

"I don't!" Terra responded sharply, almost in a sob.

"Oh… right." Robin rubbed the back of his neck. "Care to tell us about your sister or what she wanted from you?"

Terra took too long to respond so Cyborg, whom was standing silently by the window, spoke up, "How about telling us what 'the Gaia' is supposed to mean?"

Terra still wouldn't respond as depression had taken a hold of her. Robin pressed on, "Terra, please, Beast Boy is out there somewhere, and right now you're our only hope of finding him!"

Cyborg moved closer with a more sympathetic approach, "Look, I understand what you're going through right now. I can't feel anything either, and almost all of the senses that I have left are run through a computer program. But the important thing is that you're alive and kicking. And right now we're trying to see to it that BB stays the same way."

"The Gaia… It's a curse in our family," Terra finally spoke up, but almost as if she was talking to herself, "We're twins but she was the lucky one, she was born without it. I don't know what it is; I don't even know why we call it that. All I know is that it is the reason why I had too much power to control, why I'm like… this, and why all I can do is hurt people wherever I go!"

"Terra, I know that you're going through a tough time right now," Robin consoled, "but everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has something dark in their past. But that'll never change who you are right here and now."

Terra studied him for a moment then turned her head, "How can you say that after all that I've done to you?"

"Raven would call it lesser of two evils, I'd like to think of it as a chance to redeem yourself." Robin said as he extended a hand out to Terra.

She looked at his hand then looked back up to his face. A slight smile crept up the side of her stone features, "I thought you said that my last chance was my last chance."

"We've all had a year to think about our mistakes," He returned a smile.

"So what do you want me to do? I certainly don't know where my sister would be hiding so should I be out there with Starfire and Raven searching the city?"

"No, from what we know, Isis is still after you- after the Gaia. And she's probably holding Beast Boy for hostage negotiations." His attention was diverted as Starfire stepped through the door, "We both have our trump cards in hand, the question is, who's going to make the first move?" and with that he stood up and walked towards Starfire, "Don't worry, we'll find him. Everyone here should rest up if they can," He said before leaving to take up the search.

As the door closed behind him, Terra sighed silently to herself, "I don't sleep either."

Back at the abandoned hockey arena, the blonde ice princess walked down the hallway carrying a few bags of chips and candy bars in hand, contemplating to herself whether this stuff was okay to eat after sitting in the rink's vending machine for so long. But it was no real concern to her whether or not Beast Boy's prison meal was stale. As she approached the storage room where she was keeping the Titan captive, she heard a growl akin to that of a grizzly bear, followed by progressive pounding on the door. She ran the rest of the distance to the door and yelled on through to the other side, "Didn't you hear me the first time! If you keep doing that those icicles will come down and KILL you!" Her protest was met with a crackling sound followed by a shatter and a beastly yelp. She cursed as she rapidly undone all of the locks and swung the door open to see a lifeless mass of fur lying on the floor, pierced though with the icicles that she warned him about. "You idiot," she scoured as she stepped into the room, "I can't believe that you… wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be green?" She had just realized that she had been duped in time to turn around to see a green spider monkey claw it's way from above the door frame to outside the chamber, landing in the hallway in human form.

He glared at her as he took the door in solid grip. Swiftly slamming it shut before she was able to send the icicles after him. The frosty lances exploded against the opposition of the steel door. Beast Boy quickly worked his was down the series of bolt locks, securing his captor in the cell. Isis punched the door in vein, letting the dull ring accentuate her frustration. "She's not the same as you remember her!" She screamed, "You don't know what she's become!" Her protests were left unanswered, as the changeling had already made his way down the hall- to freedom.

The streets and alleys of the city stood in quiet solitary as the rain finally let up. The silence only to be broken by a crimson motorcycle pressing it's way though, leaving the afterimage of its taillights in the hanging mist. Driven by raw determination, Robin scanned left to right as he barrelled down each street. If it wasn't for his honed reflexes and heightened awareness of his surroundings, he surely would have run over Beast Boy as the green changeling came stumbling out of an alleyway right in front of him. He fishtailed his bike onto its side and skidded to a halt a near foot from making Beast Boy's day any worse.

Robin leaped off his bike and gripped his friend by the shoulders, rambling at him with a flurry of questions concerning where he's been and what happened. Beast Boy only responded by swaying loosely from his collective injuries and dehydration. "Hockey," He muttered with his eyes half open before falling limp in his friend's arms.

"Everyone," Robin spoke into his communicator as he sat the semiconscious Beast Boy onto the back of his motorcycle, "I've found him and we're coming home."

About half an hour later, Cyborg awaited the return of his comrades in the Tower's garage. The large mechanized doors to the underwater tunnel, which connects the Tower to the city streets, beeped and whirled in a kaleidoscope of metal, clearing the way for Robin to roll through with Beast Boy in tow.

"I found him running around the slums," Robin informed, "he's a little worse for wear but at least he's still alive."

"How ya feeling?" Cyborg asked as he helped Beast Boy off the bike.

"All in all, I think my butt has had enough kicking for one evening," Beast Boy half jokingly responded as he tried to rotate his sore arms.

"You're a real trooper," Cyborg smiled, "Here, I've got something that'll help things along. It's a medicinal anti cell damage injection." He took the liberty of applying it to Beast Boy's arm, "It'll fix up any permanent damage you would have had from Isis turning you into a Popsicle. But I tell ya, if you hadn't done that little frog trick of yours, a truck load of this stuff wouldn't help you."

"What can I say," Beast Boy grinned, "when you can turn into every animal, it helps to do your homework."

"Well, it's good to have you back," Robin patted him on the shoulder, "We've all been worried about you, especially Terra."

Beast Boy shot a look at him full of pure confusion, "Terra! What are you talking about?"

Robin studied his friend's expression, "What was the last thing you remember from your fight with Isis in the cavern?"

"Um, I remember that I had her right where I wanted her, then she did this thing where she froze me from the inside out and started roughing me up… and I don't remember anything after that." He then thought about the question for a moment, "Wait, are you saying that Terra is alive? And here?"

Beast Boy sprinted for the stairs calling the girl's name while Robin tried to stop him, "Wait, there's something you should know first!" he yelled in vein.

Somewhere in the tower, a sad little Golem Girl walked aimlessly down the halls, she was lost in her own deep thoughts when she heard a familiar voice frantically calling her name and getting progressively louder. "Beast Boy? N-No!" she quietly said to herself, not even beginning to fathom how she'd confront him in her current form. Panicking, she slipped down another hallway to escape the object of her affection.

In her retreat, she bumped right into Starfire, "Why do you avoid him?" Starfire asked, getting right to the point.

"Starfire, I- I can't let him see me like this! Please, you have to cover for me!"

"There is nothing wrong with you, Friend Terra. And I shall not 'cover for you' as there is nothing that you need have hidden," Starfire said in a serious tone.

"Look, now's not the time for the old speech about how it's what's inside that counts. I just don't know how Beast Boy will take seeing me like this!"

Starfire sighed, "I think he'll understand," She said as she gently placed a hand on Terra's shoulder and turned her around to face Beast Boy, whom was surprised to see her like that, but was in no way repulsed.

"Terra? Is that you?" Beast Boy asked in astonishment.

Terra shied in response "Um… h-hi Beast Boy, I'm sorry that-"

She didn't finish as Beast Boy walked right up to her and wrapped his arms around her without hesitation. Almost coming to tears, "They all told me you were gone! But I never gave up! I never stopped hoping!" Terra tried to comfort him; she slowly returned the embrace and tried to put as much of herself into it. But it was difficult for her; she couldn't feel him hugging her, and she was sure that all he could feel was cold stone.

Robin silently came up beside Starfire, "I guess he had to find out sooner or later," he said, observing the two recollecting a year's loss.

"They are very close to each other," Starfire nodded, "But what are we to do now, about Isis?"

"We know where she's hiding and she doesn't have her hostage anymore. I say that we take the advantage while we can."

Moment's later, all six of the Titans congregated within the living room with Robin standing before them with the large screen pulled downed displaying a digital overhead map of the city.

"We've got a fix on her location" Robin said curtly, gesturing to the map. "We shouldn't waste time. The longer we let her be, the longer she has to ambush us. I'm not letting her make fools of us twice."

"She doesn't need time." Cyborg shook his head. "It's an abandoned hockey rink. She's got all the ammo she needs at her fingertips. If we go barging in, she's gonna make us regret it."

"Sneak attack." Robin nodded. "We're gonna need some coordination on this one."

"I say we cut off the water supply." Cyborg suggested. "Granted, she's already got plenty of ice there to work with, but no reason why we should let her make more."

"Agreed." Robin gave his consent. "Star and Raven can go in through the roof. Cyborg can cut the water supply and come in through the basement. Beast Boy and I will try hitting the place from behind. "What about you, Terra? She's your sister."

"Which should make this my fight, not yours." Terra sighed. Once again, she was dragging the Titans into her own problems. Her comment brought silence from the rest of the team, broken after several beats by Raven.

"And now we see but through a glass darkly." She said quietly, almost to herself.

"I'm sorry?" Terra repeated.

"I know it hurts." Raven explained herself. "But sometimes, you have to look in the mirror, even when you don't like what you see."

"Isis and I haven't gotten along since before I can remember." Terra sighed, an eerie picture, since she didn't respirate in her current form. "But I never knew she would turn out like this. Now I'm watching her make the same mistakes I made, and I wonder if this is all either of us our good for."

"That's not true." Starfire interrupted, placing a hand on Terra's shoulder.

"It must be!" Terra said forcefully. "We just keep repeating our sad history."

"I too, have a sister." Starfire said sadly. "We are siblings, but there is little about us that is the same. My sister, Blackfire, is not my mirror image. In fact, she's really not a very nice person. And even though she is my sister... she is not me."

"But don't you feel responsible for her? Don't you feel like her actions are your fault?"

"No matter what Blackfire does, she isn't me." Starfire explained.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I use my abilities for what I wish. I am committed to making myself a better person. I wish to be someone my K'Norfka can be proud of. Blackfire does not. And Isis doesn't either."

Terra shuttered and closed her eyes, pretending that she could still breathe or cry, "Can you just… give me a moment?" She didn't wait for consent as she turned and walked right out of the room.

Robin nudged Beast Boy; "Maybe you should go talk to her."

Terra!" Beast Boy called as he caught up the Golem Girl just as she was about to disappear into her room. She stopped and slowly turned around, giving Beast Boy her attention, "Please, tell me what's wrong."

"What's wrong? Do you mean everything that's messed up in my life or just the fact that we're planning an assault on my own flesh and blood? Ironic that I used that phrase, isn't it? Seeing as how I _have_ no flesh and blood! It just seems that no matter how hard I try, no matter where I go, all I end up doing is hurting people. Even when I tried to stick it out on my own, I only caused trouble when I wanted to help. I should have just given it to her; I should have done what she told me. Then I wouldn't be stuck like this. Then I never would've let myself get used by Slade. Then I never would have hurt so many people." Terra whimpered, making a sound that was akin to crying, only she no longer had tears to cry.

"Then we would never have met you," Beast Boy added, "Look, you can't blame yourself for everything. Isis is the one who messed with us, not you. In fact, you pretty much saved me in that cavern"

"Saved you?" Terra spat, "Don't you get it Beast Boy? It's my fault that you nearly got killed and was kidnapped in the first place! If anything else this is my fight. I feel that I can't risk dragging you guys into it anymore."

"Don't think like that. In case you haven't noticed, we Titans have a habit of getting involved in things that don't concern us. But this, this is completely different, you're a Titan, and if anyone has a problem with you, they'll just have to deal with all of us!" Beast boy pressed his thumb against his chest.

"It's not just that Beast Boy," She said as she placed both hands on his shoulders, "Ever since I… came back, like this… when you hugged me earlier… I can't feel anything, or smell, or breathe, or cry, or taste anything. I can't even sleep."

"Terra… I didn't know… what…"

"Look, this is something that I shouldn't be telling you," She looked around the hall, "But I think Isis can cure me. The thing that causes my powers to go out of control, why I turned to stone, and why I'm like this, it's all caused by something called the Gaia. And Isis is the only one who can take it from me."

"And what happens when she does?"

"I don't know, but it's better than living like this. I know that Robin wouldn't approve, giving something so powerful to our enemy. But I just can't stand it anymore- living in this shell of an existence."

"Terra, please don't do anything stupid," Beast Boy begged, "We can help you. You're one of us, and nothing that you did in the past can change that."

"You're so eager to forgive me when I'm not even ready to forgive myself," despite not being able to feel him, she embraced Beast Boy in a long hug, "It's my fight Beast Boy, my family, my curse, and my problem. I can't let any of you get involved anymore. I'm sorry, I truly am."

She then let go, stepped inside her room and closed the door. It took Beast Boy a moment to realize that Terra had slipped her communicator into his hand, "Terra?" he asked through the door. After a moment with no response, he opened the door to find the room empty, the far window pulled open with a free breeze flowing through, "No! Please no!" he said in shock before running down the hall to warn the rest of his friends.

Clear across town, back at the old abandoned hockey rink, Isis, whom at great effort managed to escape from the prison, was taking out her frustration on the poor, defenceless zamboni machine. "The stupid, annoying, little freak of nature!" She cursed as she pierced the machine with ice broken off the rink floor to ascent each proclamation, "I can't believe that I let him trick me like that!" Her venting was abruptly halted as she felt a familiar and alluring presence. She devilishly turned around and looked up to see Terra standing in the frame of a long since broken window up in the rafters. "Terra… how nice of you to come. Are you ready to let your sister make all the bad things go away?" The solemn Golem Girl offered no response as she floated down to ground level, "That's right, mom always said that we should share," She grinned with an evil laugh.

Author's Notes:  
Wow, over 4,000 words, that's certainly larger than my average entry. But then again, I had a lot I wanted to cover in this chapter, which also explains why this chapter took so long to write. Well, that and since I have two stories going on at the same time, I keep them both up by alternating between the chapters. I just noticed that this is the first chapter of IPS that doesn't have a fight scene in it. Guess I'll have to make up for it in the next chapter, eh? Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! Anyways, I also have a little treat for you. Just follow this link provided below and you'll see character designs for Isis and Terra as the Golem Girl. For those of you who don't read my Time Capsule story (check out the author's notes of chapter 7 of that story for character designs of the Time Capsule cast) I am an artist first and a writer second. Well, until next time, bye.

You know the drill, just replace all the (dot)'s with actual dots in the URL. And replace the (colon, slash, slash) with well, you know.

http(colon, slash, slash)forums(dot)titansgo(dot)net/viewtopic(dot)php?t5195


	7. The Face of Gaia

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 7: The Face of Gaia

"Titans, GO!" Robin ordered into his communicator, signalling all of his teammates to spring out for the assault. Cyborg broke out through the door to the basement, where he moments ago shut off the water as per planned. Starfire and Raven burst their way through opposing windows up near the roof. And Beast boy charged through the front door as a bison with Robin following behind.

They all took their positions and stood with sonic cannons, birderangs, and whatnot primed and ready. All prepared to unleash havoc upon the villainy girl standing calmly by her twin in the centre of the arena. It seemed as if Isis was completely expecting them.

"Terra!" Beast Boy yelled once he had returned to human form, "Get away from her! We're here to help!"

The sad little Golem Girl didn't respond as her almost empty face stared remorsefully at the ground. "Believe me, there is nothing that you can do to help her!" Isis answered on her sister's behalf.

"You'd be amazed at what we can do!" Robin retorted, "There is no way any of us are going to let you get away with this!"

"Get away with what? Do you even know what this is all about? Have you even stopped to think about what I can do for her? Believe me, there is nothing that is going to go on here that isn't of my sister's own free will, isn't that right Terra?"

Terra hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.

"Terra, please," Beast Boy begged, "You know this isn't right. It's not too late. I promise that we will do everything we can to help you!"

"You just don't understand," Terra finally forced out, a response that set Beast Boy back.

"Shh," Isis calmed her as she ran a hand through her sister's hair, which didn't appear as hair at all. More like yellow magma, which was cool to the touch, "I'll make everything all better now… are you ready?" Terra responded with another nod as she turned to mirror her twin

"Titans, stop her!" Robin ordered, sending all of the heroes to advance on the twins. But it was too little, too late. Isis cupped her hands onto Terra's cheeks as she summoned forth the blue light into her eyes and willed them to collapse into white dots again. Terra looked straight into her twin's eyes and the yellow light shining throughout her own eyes began to flicker wildly, rippling inwards into concentrated white dots.

"I promise you… you will feel pain," Isis assured before the white light in their eyes stretched out in beams to connect with each other. A concentrated beam that expanded wildly upon formation into an orb of white light that completely engulfed the two sisters.

The orb of light radiated with such raw power that it's shockwave alone threatened the Titans. Raven yelled, "Look out," as she formed a dome of dark matter around her comrades to protect them from the onslaught of destructive energy and debris that was sent flying by the force of the light as it ripped the old hockey arena apart, bit-by-bit, like an inverted black hole.

The orb levitated under it's own force up into the middle of the enclosure. The Titans were powerless to stop it let alone comprehend it as to step outside the safety of Raven's dome would be like stepping out into a hurricane. All they could do was look on in horror as they could actually hear the sound of the young girls screaming within this ball of chaos… this, Gaia, as one would assume.

Finally, the ball let out one last huge shockwave, which came very close to obliterating Raven's force field. As it let all of it's energy burst out, Raven could see a figure flail out from the core of the explosion right through the windows to the manager's office. And she also saw a similar figure fall towards them. Out of the womb of Gaia that had once existed between the sisters, rebirthed like an infant, the teenage girl collapsed to the floor, no longer made of stone, but flesh and blood. Quickly realizing the situation, Raven allowed her dome of dark matter to dissipate, rushing forward and wrapping Terra's fragile body up in her cloak. "Naked we come into this world, and naked we will depart." Raven muttered to herself as she tied the fabric around Terra's form, trying to preserve the girl's modesty.

Raven floated back with the girl in her arms, carrying her to the safety of their group. She seemed small and vulnerable, gone was the formidable presence she had posed as a golem. Her skin was pale and fragile, but none could deny that Terra had been preserved in all of her beauty, save for a blemish on her forehead. Wrapped up in Raven's cloak, she was a mixture of blonde and pink and bluish-purple. She was barely conscious, and shivered in the damp air of the hockey rink. Robin offered his cape as well to give her a little more protection from the cold. All five Titans remained silent as they looked at the beautiful and wretched girl whom Raven held, she had known so much pain in her life, would it finally be over now? Somehow, Robin doubted it. Raven knew better than to put faith in false hopes.

"So… does that mean we won?" Beast Boy asked.

"I… think so. But what about Isis?" Cyborg added to the question.

"Perhaps the Isis was not as evil as we had assumed," Starfire tried to rationalize, "Maybe her methods were only… different. Friend Terra does seem to be back to her normal self. What do you think Robin?"

"I think that we should return to the base for now and get Terra to the infirmary. Or at least into some, ahem, actual clothes," Robin blushed slightly as a teenage boy would in such a situation, "Anyways, we can come back later to figure out exactly what happened."

They all motioned to head out the front doors but a giant sheet of ice, seemingly out of nowhere, struck down to block their escape. "I can't believe it!" a voice bellowed from the manager's office on the other side of the arena, "you were actually going to leave without at least checking up on me? Not even to thank me?"

They all turned around to see the source of the mockery. Isis herself stood in the broken window frame which she moments ago came crashing through, the window frame itself being grown over with frost upon her touch. Her eyes shone insanely with the blue light, which now glowed with such intensity it was like a blizzard dwelled just beyond her face. And, for the first time ever, the blue light silhouetted her hands, "Can't you just stay for a little bit? I want to try out my new toy!" she gave a hungry grin.

The Titans didn't have time to react as Isis leapt from her perch, encased herself in an icicle, which she summoned forth from the ice rink below, and drove herself right in the middle of the unprepared teenagers. The group divided off in five different directions to evade the lethal assault. Relentless, Isis exploded out from the icicle in an instant and sent the splintered shards out as a barrage of daggers in all possible directions, despite this, the Titans where able to deflect the attack with their various skills and powers.

"You were saying something about her not being evil?" Cyborg managed to rhetorically ask Starfire.

"Apparently I have been mistaken," Starfire answered briskly before she had to dodge and icy claw that threatened to crush her.

Isis laughed manically as she stood in one spot, waving her glowing hands around like she was orchestrating a chaotic play, "This is fantastic! I can't believe how spoiled Terra was! Ha ha ha, I could do this all night!"

She glanced over to see Cyborg yell out as he tried to unleash a sonic blast upon her. She brought a hand forth to cause three panels of ice from the floor to swing up and clamped onto him, crushing his mechanical body with methodical force. His metallic armour actually began to buckle and sparks flew under the progressive pressure. Beast Boy promptly swooped in as a falcon then transformed into a crocodile to gnaw away at the base of the frosty death vice. With his specialized animalistic force, he managed to break away one of the panels to the trap and Cyborg was allowed to free his right arm, which he used the attached sonic cannon to disentangle himself from the remaining pieces of what would surely have been his tomb.

Allowing Cyborg to collapse to the ground in pain for a moment, Isis quickly swatted Beast Boy harshly away towards the bleachers with a large fist composed of ice. The fist then backhanded Cyborg into the other direction before it was blown to pieces by a powerful green bolt of energy. Isis turned slightly to see Starfire flying bravely towards her with eyes glowing with an intense hatred. The alien girl cursed something in her native tongue as she let loose a rapid assault from her eye beams, an assault of which Isis effortlessly deflected by summoning a thick wall of ice to take the impact. The broken chunks from the ice wall were all too eager fly up and attack the Tameranian girl. Starfire dodged as much as she could but, overwhelmed, was struck in the shoulder and the forehead then fell to the ground to rub her bruises.

"You guy's are total pushovers!" Isis laughed as she tore a pair of 30-foot long blades from the rink floor and began to twirl them around with effortless glee. The arena would surely have become a giant blender if the force of Dark Matter did not take down her icy blades. Raven approached Isis with one hand up front, enveloped in dark mater, and her other arm occupied with the weight of the unconscious girl. Isis was about to promptly respond with a handful of icicles but she held back her volley when she realized that Terra would be caught in the fray.

"You can't attack because you don't want to hurt your sister, right?" Raven pointed out, hoping to catch Isis on a moral weakness.

"You know, I would call you a coward for using a sleeping girl as a shield, but really, I just thought that I would try something new."

Isis glared at Raven, letting the blue light in her eyes intensify. Raven saw no immediate affect so she decided to press an attack before something did happen, "Azarath Metrion Zin- (cough) Azarath Metri- (cough, cough) Az (cough, cough, gasp, cough, gasp)" She clasped her hand to her collar as the air entering her lungs came in so dry, and so blistering cold that it stung the back of her throat and chilled her to the core.

She lowered herself to the ground beside Robin out of shortness of breath. "Are you alright?" Robin asked as she shouldered some of Terra's weight for her.

"None of us are," Raven pointed out in a forced voice, "We're getting beaten around here and she's having the time of her life."

"Agreed, we're no match for her with all of this ice at her fingertips! Get everyone out of here, I'll keep her distracted!"

"But what about y-"

"Just do it!" He ordered as he rushed off.

Raven fulfilled her task by rounding up all of her battered and bruised comrades in dark matter and filing them out of the building through the windows near the roof as the front door was still blocked by ice. "Where do you think you're going?" Isis barked, "I'm not finished playing with you!"

"Playtime's over!" came Robin's battle cry as he dove at Isis in her distracted moment with his staff in hand. Barely surprised, Isis met his assault by raising a wall of ice between them. Robin struck his staff firmly in the wall and vaulted over it. Isis watched him arch over the wall onto her opposing side. She prepared for hand-to-hand combat by forming two long icy blades onto her hands. Robin swung his staff downwards as he descended which Isis parried with her frosty blades. Robin rebounded and struck again, and again, forcing her into her own ice wall. No words were exchanged as Isis heard an alarming beeping sound right behind her. She quickly discovered that the sly martial artist planted a small bomb onto the wall before he vaulted over. Disgusted at this trickery, she swung the wall around to stand between them again, allowing Robin to see his own bomb at close ranged.

Not having much time to think as the beeping had peaked in its rhythm, Robin planted his foot into the wall and rebounded back as quickly as he could. To his shock, the wall followed after him, he back flipped to try and gain some distance before the bomb fulfilled its purpose. Running out of space to move and time to react, Robin covered his face and braced for impact.

The immediate explosion shook the surroundings and sent up a thick cloud of smoke that obscured Isis's vision. Hacking the smoke out of her lungs and waving the cloud from her face, she waited until things cleared to observe the damage. To her surprise, she inadvertently blasted the front doors wide open, and neither whole nor piece of Robin or any of the Titans lay in the debris.

Instead of cursing or getting upset, Isis simply grinned as she knew that they had retreated back to their precious tower to lick their wounds and await in fear of her next assault. She let out an exalted breath and blinked once to allow the light to fade from her eyes. "Alight, playtime is over… for now," She then fixed the collar on her jacket and trotted down the steps onto the sidewalk, leaving the frail remains of her short-lived base behind. She had more entertaining things on her agenda at the moment. Such as getting in contact with a man of eccentric nature whom she heard promising things about named Professor Chang.

Author's Notes:  
I told you I'd make up for the lack of action scenes in the last chapter. And as such I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Even though at some points I was wondering if I was overusing the word 'ice'. Is it just me, or am I making Isis eviler with every chapter? Kind of makes you wonder what her motive truly is. I assure you, it's not just for the sake of being evil (I've always hated villains like that, and the Brotherhood of Evil is a prime example). I must say that I really like how the transfer of the Gaia scene went. I pondered for a while on how it would play out as well as the appearance of the Gaia as it swapped bodies. Finally settling on an unstoppable force akin to an inverted black hole. Well, that's it for now. Until next time.


	8. Calm before the Blizzard

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 8: Calm before the Blizzard

The infirmary was eerily quiet as the frail girl lay sleeping soundly on one of the beds. The lights were dimmed and a machine next to her beeped steadily in tune with her heart. Only two things dared to make a noise in that room. The beeping heart monitor, and the very faint, almost infant like, shallow breathing of the blonde girl whom has not opened her eyes in almost three days.

If one weren't looking closely enough, one would assume that she was completely alone in this dark room. But another girl, who's attire almost completely hid her within the abundant shadows, sat cross-legged in a nearby chair. She had not been charged with the task of looking over the sleeping girl, this was something that she chose to do without even notifying the others. She had come in there with a purpose, but a purpose she had questioned if there was any real point in fulfilling.

Hesitantly, she rose from her position and walked across the room to stand over the sleeping teenager, "You're one messed up girl… that much we have in common," she said with a strange sense of amusement gracing her voice.

She looked at the girl, receiving no acknowledgment save for the stable breathing, "Yeah, I'm trying to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Terra while she's in a coma," She mocked herself, "Lot of good that'll do, Raven."

She looked again at her inattentive audience, "Okay, look. By all accounts I should be really mad at you right now. But it's no good yelling at you when you probably can't hear me. Actually, Cyborg thinks that you're staying asleep just to avoid me," she tried to laugh at her own comment but it faded into a sigh.

Growing weary of standing around, she took up a seat on the bed right beside Terra. The sleeping girl bounced once from the impact, letting out a quiet little moan.

"That's right, I should be mad at you… but I'm not… I can't be. Otherwise I'd be nothing more than a hypocrite," She fidgeted on the bed of a bid before continuing, "Look, I can't say that I forgive you for what you did, or for any of the things you have done, and I can't even promise that I'll even pretend to get along with you. You betrayed this team yet again and instead of trusting us, you gave a powerful weapon to our enemy. But I guess you were only thinking about one thing at the time, weren't you? Well, congratulations, you got what you wanted, you're flesh and bone again. You've been relieved of the curse that has made your life so miserable. You must feel so happy right now. Well guess what kid, it's far from over. You will stand up to this, you will reconcile with your mistakes, because if you dare to just run away from this and leave us to deal with your psychopath of a sister, I swear I will hunt you down and-"

"What are you doing in here?" Beast Boy asked as he opened the door.

Raven quickly stood up and pulled her hood over her head, "Nothing!" She said sharply.

Beast boy studied her expression as he stepped into the room, "You weren't going to do anything to Terra, were you?"

"Please, give me some credit. If I _were_ going to do anything to her I'd want her awake to…" she caught Beast Boy glaring at her, "Sorry. You don't have to worry. I don't want to do anything to her; it's Isis that we should be after. Speaking of which, how goes the hunt for the little Ice princess?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"What can I say? It's like she disappeared off the face of the Earth."

"Do you think that she skipped town?" Raven shrugged, "I mean, she got what she wanted."

"Yeah, right. Like she'd just pack up and leave after the beating that she gave us. Just try asking Robin that same question. He hasn't left that computer screen since we got back. Seriously, I'm missing all my favourite shows!"

"So he thinks that she'll try attacking us again?"

"Worse, he thinks that she'd try attacking the tower. That's why the security's been so tight since that day." Beast boy then looked sympathetically down at Terra, "It's strange isn't it, she looks just like the day we met her. You know, this may sound corny, but the other day I was in here, just… talking to her. Sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"Not that weird," Raven commented, "Well I'll leave you two alone now."

"Raven?" Beast boy called before she could step outside the door, "If… _when_ Terra wakes up, and she's back to her old self again… what do you think will be the first thing you say to her?"

Raven actually had to think about that for a moment, "Hopefully not anything too condescending," she answered in a very deadpan manner before leaving her friend and the… traitor alone.

She traversed through the halls and entered the main room to find Cyborg sitting at a monitor clicking intensely away at a keyboard while Robin spent his time looking between a large map of the city displayed on the big screen and a tablet computer he held in his hand. In fact, Raven arrived just in time to witness Robin loose his patience.

"Arge!" he yelled as he threw the device to the floor and tossed his arms up in the air.

"Yo, man! You wanna be more careful with my tech!" Cyborg yelled, almost as equally stressed. Raven, the only other person in the room stood frozen in time and watched as these two have finally had enough.

"This is ridiculous! For three days, THREE DAYS, we've combed the city, checked every database from here to Gotham looking for this psychopath. And we have absolutely nothing to show for it!"

"So maybe you could see this as a good thing, man. It looks like Isis split, she's out of our hair."

"You and I both know that it's never that easy. I let her into this house, I let her join this team, I let her betray us, I-"

"It's happening again," Cyborg interrupted, "It's just like last time and you think it's your fault that it happened. You're always like this, man. You think that everything that goes wrong is your fault."

Robin walked right up and slammed his fist down on the desk that Cyborg was working on, staring him right in the eyes, "I never make the same mistake twice."

Cyborg returned the stare for a moment before he spoke, "There is one thing that's different this time. We all trusted Terra."

"And that's why I should never have let this happen," Robin growled as he lifted himself off the desk and walked towards the door, not even exchanging greetings was he and Raven crossed paths.

"He seems more stressed out than usual," Raven observed, "Isn't this just like any other villain? Sure he's been like this with Slade, but he never went on a three day streak."

"When was the last time a villain joined our team, betrayed us, kidnapped one of our own, gain a new super power-up, kicked our collective butts, then disappeared all within a week?" Cyborg recounted without straying from his work at hand.

"I see your point."

"And what's worse is that Robin thinks that the Tower has a giant bull's-eye on it. Being surrounded by water, it'll be easy pickings for someone like Isis. For all we know, she could be waiting for us to let our guards down."

"I guess he was right, this is ridiculous." Raven admitted, "So what are you doing?"

"System checks. Having the security system wired for sound for three days straight takes a real toll on the hardware. I'm just making sure that…" he stopped mid sentence and narrowed his eyes at the screen, "what the hell? Damn!"

"What? What happened?" Raven asked, understanding the urgency in Cyborg's voice.

"Someone's trying to hack our communication frequency!" He informed as he typed at an increasingly rapid pace trying to counteract this hacker.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I have to jam our own frequency to keep this isolated! Go round up the team like only you can, Rae!"

"Got'cha!" and with that Raven summoned up her Dark Matter to envelope her and disappeared into the floor.

Moments later she reappeared, flipping back her cloak to allow the Titans to emerge from the darkness. "What's the situation, Cyborg?" Robin asked.

"Got a hacker trying to break into our communications!" Cyborg informed.

"I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting her to attack the Tower like this," Robin said with a slight smirk.

"You are certain that it is her?" Starfire queried.

"It had better be, I'm sick of waiting for her. Cyborg, open up communications."

"Say what? Man, if I let this thing in it could seriously mess up our whole system!"

"Open the communications, but keep it on a stand-alone network and lay down an encryption on all other systems."

"You're the boss," Cyborg huffed as he followed his orders.

The map of the city displayed on the big screen flickered twice then fell into static, soon to be replaced with a slightly garbled video feed of the villainy girl in question. Though she was mostly in shadows and wore a long coat, there was no effort to hide her identity.

"Titans," Isis greeted with a devilish smile.

"Isis," Robin returned with a glare.

"Hmm, is Terra not there with you?"

"She's not your concern right now, you'll just have to deal with me!"

"Oh, right to the point. I like that," She smiled, "Very well then. You can't trace this transmission in time to do anything about it, so don't bother. And don't bother calling for help. If you involve anyone else, I'll just go after them too."

"What do you want, Isis?"

"For you to surrender and come off this nonsense," She laughed at the masked teen, "I can clearly kill you all at any time. Why prolong the inevitable? You're all going to die. You can at least go out with the knowledge that you didn't die while huddled in a corner."

"That's not going to happen. Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're friends of my sister. Anyone that makes her happy can't be allowed to exist."

"What are your issues with Terra, anyway? You two are family. You don't have to do this."

"Spare me the morality play, Robin. Are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

"Your beef was with the Gaia, right? Well you've got that now. Other than that, you and Terra are identical twins in every way. The raw material is the same. There's no reason why you can't be every bit as good as Terra can be."

"It's too late to appeal to my better side, Robin. You messed that up when you decided to start studying me behind my back; when you started to compare me to her. I do what I want, got it? If you haven't noticed, I've evolved a lot since we first met. I've got a new lease on life."

"And what are you going to do with it?" Robin persisted. "Waste it in a blaze of hatred? Misuse your power so you can feel better about yourself? There's a better way to deal with things than this."

Isis's appearance darkened, something inside of her eyes gleamed with an intensity Robin actually feared, but he wouldn't allow her to see it, "I'll teach you what I'm really capable of, and soon! And when you're writhing in agony, begging for me to stop, remember which sister has the true power in our family. I'll be seeing you, much sooner than you'd like, I promise," Her image abruptly flashed of the screen in a distortion of static.

"That transmission Isis sent us was just foreplay," Robin muttered, cocking his head to the side. He hated situations that he couldn't control, and the Titans were regrettably being boxed in further with each passing moment.

"You think she's going to mess with us again?" Beast Boy asked.

"She asked us to surrender," Robin said curtly, "I was right all along. She's planning an all out assault against the Tower."

"She would not," Starfire shook her head, "I cannot believe that she would press us so far as to attack our home."

"I know it's hard to accept, but the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes. We need to mobilize."

"What's your plan?" Cyborg asked.

"Isis intends to strike us here, so we make tracks."

"That's your big plan?" Beast Boy raised his voice, "Run away!"

"Hardly. I'm just trying to outsmart her. She knows the territory here too well. If we're going to face her, we need to be the ones to pick the place, not her."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Raven cocked an eyebrow, "If she's keeping tabs on us that closely, she'll know the instant we leave if we go by ground or by air."

"Which leaves the water," Cyborg nodded, "It might work."

"It would also make us sitting ducks if she figured it out. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be surrounded by water if Isis finds out what we're doing. That battle would be over before it even begins."

"Agreed," Robin nodded, "But it might also be our best option." He turned to Cyborg, "How's Terra, can we move her?"

"She's stable enough to take with us. Most of the physical trauma wasn't that serious. It's the scars we can't see that worry me."

"We have to take Terra with us!" Beast Boy insisted, "There's no way we're leaving her behind."

"Don't worry, we won't," Robin responded.

"Perhaps we should call on our friends," Starfire laid a hand on Robin's shoulder, "We should not be too proud to ask for help."

"The Titans East?" Robin brought a gloved hand to his chin, considering it.

"Strength in numbers," Raven admitted.

"Is this fight worth dragging others into?" Robin pondered.

"Don't I get a say in any of this? She's my sister," A somewhat wobbly Terra joined the group. She seemed groggy and dishevelled, but her skin showed considerably more colour than it had when she had been brought back to the Tower.

"Terra!" Beast Boy shouted, rushing to her side.

"I'll be all right," She patted him gently on the shoulder, her lips curling slightly at the corner of her mouth, "Hey… I felt that!" She gripped him a little harder, flexing her fingers, "I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to, well, feel!"

"Okay, so maybe she's doing better than I thought," Cyborg said sheepishly, "Great, she knows Isis better than anybody."

"That's what worries me," Raven muttered under her breath, clearly unhappy at Terra's interruption.

"That's right, I do," Terra nodded, disengaging herself from Beast Boy, who was in full fawning mode, "She wants to make me pay for the stuff that happened between us when we were kids. Hurting you guys is just her way of trying to hurt me."

"But she must have some kind of weakness," Robin insisted.

"She has the Gaia," Terra pouted, "What's worse, she knows how to control it."

"Everyone has a weakness," Robin informed, "and it doesn't take a genius to figure out your sister's Achilles' Heel," he looked around at his comrades for someone to come up with the answer on their own, "Well, come on, I thought it was obvious. If she's nowhere near water or ice she's powerless. Even with the Gaia."

"Robin's right," Cyborg agreed, "I mean, when we were fighting you, Terra, it was different. We couldn't keep you away from your element because it is everywhere."

"Ah, so that is why you named your planet after it," Starfire realized.

"Pretty much," Robin responded, "But what I'm thinking is that we take the battle to an area where we are in complete control. Somewhere that she doesn't have an abundance of water to play with."

"I'd hate to burst your bubble," Beast Boy interrupted, "but I fought her in that cavern with nothing more than two water bottles for ammo and not only did she kick my butt, but I also got turned into a fifth grade science experiment!"

"You fought her alone," Cyborg reminded, "It'll be different this time, I swear."

"But where can we go where there is not an abundance of water or ice, your planet is so… blue," Starfire noted.

"The canyon," Terra spoke up, "the one North of the city where we all first met. Will that work?"

"Perfect!" Robin agreed, "Let's make it happen."

"Just like that?" Cyborg protested, "We're just going to take a little field trip and hope that Isis follows us?"

"We'll leave in two hours. Everyone take that time to prepare," Robin ordered, ignoring Cyborg's pessimism.

"Two hours? Are you nuts?" Beast Boy sided with Cyborg.

"You're right," Robin rubbed his chin, "Make that one hour."

As Robin left to prepare, Terra took a deep sigh and turned around to leave as well, but not before coming face-to-face with Raven. They both looked at each other, not really knowing how to respond. Finally Raven said "Welcome back," with a sort of forced politeness before she slipped into some nearby shadows.

Terra blinked once before she let on a warm smile, "I promise, I won't run away," she said under her breath.

Within the time constraint Terra had just finished getting dressed in her old room when she heard a knock on the door. She turned around and walked up to answer it. Not quite to her surprise, Beast Boy stood on the other side. "Hi Beast Boy," She smiled, "What are you doing here? Robin said that we had to prepare for battle."

"I am… wanted to have some time to talk to you before we left."

"Really?"

"Well, yeah. We haven't had a moment alone since you came back. This whole week has been insane."

"That it has," She agreed before looking at her watch, "Sure, we've got time, come on in."

They both trekked into the room and took a seat on the bed. Both of them sat silently as the precious minutes ticked by, either it was for a lack of words, or maybe they only wanted to enjoy each other's presence was anyone's guess.

"I thought for a little while there, I was going to lose you again," Beast Boy finally admitted, "Don't scare me like that again, okay?"

Terra blinked, "You're scaring _me_, BB. You're not your usual self," she smiled.

"Sometimes, it's hard to be, when I feel like you're in trouble and I can't do anything about it."

"You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yeah. That's what worries me," They sat in silence for a moment, and then a huge grin appeared on Terra's face, "What?" Beast Boy asked, feeling self-conscious the more Terra smiled at him.

"Are you trying to tell me what I think you're trying to tell me?" She asked in a coy voice.

"I dunno. What do you think I'm trying to tell you?"

Terra growled, giving him a push. "If you're trying to tell me what I think you're trying to tell me, then I'm telling you that I think I'm okay with that."

"Okay with what?"

"With what you're trying to tell me!" Terra laughed, pressing her left palm against her forehead.

"Oh… yeah, well… I'm just trying to tell you that-"

"I know."

"Okay then," Beast Boy now returned her smile, "We should have these talks more often… How much time do we have left?"

"Um… 8 minutes."

"Doesn't seem like a lot, does it?" Beast boy asked with a hint of anxiety.

Terra shifted herself closer to him, gave him a sweet kiss on the check (which caused his ears to perk up), and rested her head on his shoulder, "It never does."

She could have told him so many things, like how sorry she was, how much she missed him, what it was like being trapped in a stone body for a whole year. She could have told him how scared she was, because she had just spent the greater portion of the last hour practicing her now degenerated powers on a pile of rocks sitting on her desk. She could have told him about how a task once simple to her, like making the rocks dance in the air, now demanded her full concentration. She wanted to tell him these things, but she couldn't dare to waste the last (she glanced at her watch) seven minutes they had of complete serenity.

Unknown to the Titans, the very embodiment to their demise stood high above their precious tower on a floating platform of ice, the wild winds of late autumn whipped her long coat around feverishly. She casually checked her watch, satisfied that her hacking abilities (one of two things she picked up from Prof. Chang) enabled her to leave an open signal in her wake to easily listen in on the feeble plans of her enemies, "Seven minutes and counting," She grinned.

Author's notes:  
Ah yes, the drama ensues as another chapter with no action scenes graces our presence. Well, that's all right. After all, the last chapter was all action. And as you can guess by the title of this chapter, we're in for a hell of a fight. I felt it necessary for this instalment to look into how most of the character felt about this situation. Raven in particular. Yet at the same time, I didn't want her to reveal all that was on her mind, not yet anyways. And it was about time to have a nice scene like that with Beast Boy and Terra. And Isis, oh her beautiful malice… she will indeed have a few tricks up her sleeve, you can count on that. Well, until my next update, see ya


	9. Treading into Dark Waters

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 9: Treading into Dark Waters

"Oxygen tanks- check. Fuel gauge- check," Cyborg said as he manipulated seemingly random switches and buttons in his cockpit of the T-Sub, which itself sat in an upright docking position in the Tower's launch bay, "Are you sure you want to do this, Robin? This still seems like a half-baked strategy to me."

"We have to take control of this battle, Cyborg," the team leader responded over the radio in his own cockpit, "You heard Isis; she could easily attack us at any time. As much as I'd hate to admit it, the Tower is the most vulnerable target with her powers. If we don't move now then it will only give her the advantage."

"I agree with Robin," Starfire spoke up, "However, I am afraid for the safety of our home while we are away. Who is to say that Isis will not simply destroy it in our absence"

"Don't worry about that, Star," Cyborg responded, "I've got a little trick up my sleeve that I've been saving for just such an occasion. I assure you, the Tower will still be in one piece when this is all done."

"Assuming that _we're_ still in one piece when this is over," Raven added.

"How are you two doing in there?" Robin asked the two teammates who had to share a cockpit.

"We're doing just fine," Terra answered.

"_Squawk_. Just fine," copied a particularly green parrot perched on her shoulder, causing Terra to break out a little giggle.

"If I had the time, I'd have modified a sixth cockpit on the T-sub," Cyborg said.

"I really don't think they mind," Raven observed, "Now, if we're all done chit-chatting, do you think we can launch now?"

"Just one more thing before we go," Robin said as he typed on the keyboard of his on-board computer. In a moment the T-Car, parked within the same chamber, lit up and drove out through the underwater road tunnel, leading to the city streets, of it's own accord.

Cyborg frantically pressed himself up against the glass dome of his cockpit, watching his baby drive away "What- what are you doing, man?" he protested, "You can't put my baby out on those mean streets all alone!"

"It's a diversion," Robin explained very matter of fact, "Try to understand. We're taking the sub. It's the stealthiest way out of here, but it also leaves us as targets. With the tower in lockdown, we can't turn back. It'll perceive even us as threats until we release the codes to stand down the security lockout. At maximum speed, it'll take us 4 minutes and 17 seconds to cross the bay and make landfall at a safe enough distance. That's an eternity during which we'll be completely surrounded by water and vulnerable to attack. This may buy us the time we need to make sure we come through in one piece. It's kind of messy, but it's the best we can do on this kind of notice. Now, you were saying something about a launch?"

"I don't see your motorcycle being used as a decoy," Cyborg grumbled under his breath as he initiated the launch sequence. Heavy machinery whirled and grinded as the T-sub slowly rotated from it's upright position to prepare for a nose-dive into the circular pool of water below. Terra, whom has never had the privilege to travel in this fashion, suddenly felt nausea creep on.

"_Squawk_, hold on!" the parrot on her shoulder advised. She swallowed hard and braced her arms against the dashboard.

Following a loud buzzer, the T-sub was released from the large mechanical clamps that held it secure in the dock and was dropped into the water. A second after submerging, the headlights flicked on and the rear propellers proceeded to carry the vessel through the water filled tunnel and out into the bay, sealing the entrance behind it.

Starfire looked back at sealed entrance to her home, "Ooohh, I do hope that I left Silkie with enough food."

"Don't worry, Starfire," Robin responded, "I gave him his bowl when I put him in the T-Car."

"Well, that was very kind of you to… YOU DID WHAT! You are using my Silkie as a decoy for that- that Cloorbag Berggle-snekk!"

Robin cringed as Starfire's anger pierced his ear, "I'm sorry, Star. But I did it to keep him safe. The T-Car has auto-defences and no living thing can be in the Tower when Cyborg implements the 'one-ten'."

"The 'one-ten'?" Starfire cocked her head.

"It means 110 percent lockdown," Cyborg explained with a hint of pride, "Nothing gets in and nothing gets out for a 1 mile radius. Now everyone look at your screens cuze I'm only going to do this once." He whirled his finger around in the air before pressing it down on a button on his opposing forearm. Everyone stared intensely at the screens in their respective cockpits.

The first sign that something very big was about to happen was a loud siren whining though the air, giving fair warning to anyone standing too close to the Tower at the time. After a few rounds of a sound loud enough to wake the dead, all of the lights in the Tower dimmed out from top to bottom. The Tower itself then began to progressively sink into the ground with a monstrous mechanical sound, stopping only when the cross in the T hit the ground, accented with a sound akin to thunder. But the spectacle wasn't over as lengthy ramps emerged from the ground around the island all facing what was still visible of the Titan's home. In a moment, heavy steel plates shot out from the ramps and attached onto the edges of the Tower's rim. Securely creating a trapezoid design with more than enough turrets emerging from every feasible position.

"Okay, that was excessive," Raven commented.

"After all the cheap shots villains have taken at our Tower, I figured it was about time to make something like that," Cyborg explained.

"Um, guys," Terra groaned, "I never told you this before, but I get sea sick _reeeaaally_ easily."

"What?" Cyborg asked, "You couldn't have told us this before? You had better not make a mess in there, girl!"

"Well, I'm sorry. But I haven't been on a boat since I was a kid. I thought I would have, you know, out grown it."

"Terra," came Raven's voice over the radio, which surprised her a little, "Close your eyes and take deep steady breathes in through your nose and out through your mouth."

"Does that really work?" Starfire asked.

"It works for keeping one's demonic heritage suppressed, I'd imagine that vomit falls under the same category."

Terra followed the advice and soon enough she could feel her stomach fall back under control. "Thanks," she said with a sigh of relief. A moment of tranquility that didn't last long enough as red lights began to flash and an alarm rang through the sub.

"There's a large object off the port bow!" Robin exclaimed, "it's… it's an iceberg!"

"No!" Terra gasped, "How could she find us already?"

"Looks like we'll just have to survive long enough to ask her later!" Cyborg responded as he commenced evasive maneuvers.

The sub easily rolled right to avoid collision, letting the iceberg harmlessly float by. But another formed instantly in the path of their evasion. The sudden expansion of the water created rough currents and made it difficult to duck the sub under this new threat. Upon escaping death, two more icebergs formed on opposing sides of the sub and were drawn to each other with a menacing force. Cyborg had to power on the after thrusters to avoid getting pancaked between them. Not surprisingly, another iceberg formed right in front of them, Cyborg quickly rotated the after thrusters downward and sent the sub into a forward flip over this threat.

"Is everyone alright?" Cyborg asked upon roughly correcting the sub's level.

"I… (urp)… don't think I can take much more of this," Terra groaned.

"I'm picking up a bio signature," Raven explained, "It's Isis, she's right above us on the water's surface."

"Oh, I am wishing that Aqua Lad still lived in our bay," Starfire said.

"So much for our planning," Cyborg muttered, "It looks like we'll have to make our stand right here."

"I told you, I won't let her control this battle!" Robin yelled, infuriated that everything was falling apart in little more than a minute after departure, "Give me the controls! Cyborg, you man the torpedoes! Raven, provide us some cover! Everyone else, hold on for your lives!"

Robin then gripped the throttle and, without hesitation, sent the sub into a series of daring maneuvers over, under, and around constantly emerging icebergs. Raven pressed her hands up against the dome of her cockpit and chanted "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" to envelop the sub in a protective shield of Dark Matter. Occasionally, small holes would break out in front of the Dark Mater shield to let torpedoes flow through.

As the Titans progressed, the attacks became more aggressive. Soon entire walls of ice would emerge in their path, making it increasingly difficult for Robin to keep them on their course towards the canyon. One particular maneuver drew them so close to the surface of the water, that when Terra looked up, she could see the silhouette of a familiar figure hovering just above the surface, following their every move. Though she could only see a rough silhouette, she could have sworn that Isis was looking directly at her. This was a moment that lasted only a few seconds as the sub dove back into the deep.

After what seemed like an eternity of death defying maneuvers, Starfire finally spoke up, "We are approaching a land mass! At our current speed and course we will reach it in approximately 20 seconds."

"Good, we finally made it!" Robin confirmed, "Now listen up! When we land, I want everyone to run as fast as they can away from the water. We'll make our stand only when I say so!"

"Yes sir!" they all responded. And within a few seconds, the sub arched upwards, ramping onto the beach that leads into the canyon.

All of their cockpits opened and the Titans sprinted out and onto the beach. Beast Boy returned to human form to help the queasy Terra keep up with the rest of the pack. The foreboding winds of late autumn moaned through the canyon, yet despite this, it was supposedly the best place for them to be at the time.

No words were exchanged, as everyone completely understood the urgency of the situation. All they could do was progress further away from the coastline; further into the safety of the canyon walls, in a last ditch effort to gain the advantage.

Eventually, when he felt that they were at a safe enough distance, Robin skidded to a halt, turned around and readied his staff. All of the other Titans followed suit. They all waited, staring down the mouth of the canyon, waiting for their opponent to make her presence known. But nothing happened. Only the wind graced them with its presence.

"I do not believe that she followed us this far," Starfire assumed.

"Run, run, run, run. Is that all you so called heroes are good for?" asked an eerily familiar voice from behind the group.

All the Titans spun around to be greeted by a thin, feminine figure completely concealed by a long, fur lined coat, with the hood pulled up so that only the bottom portion of her face was visible beyond the shadows.

"Isis," Robin said with contempt as he planted a foot forward and shifted into a battle stance, "You have a lot of nerve!"

"And you are all cowards," she gave a belittling smirk, "I mean, if I hadn't tapped your communications line, I would have never known you were trying to avoid me. I'm flattered actually, that I am intimidating enough to cause the all mighty Teen Titans to run away crying."

"Laugh now, Isis. But we've got you exactly where we want you!"

Isis gave a casual look at her surroundings, "Hmm, you're right. There isn't a drop of water in sight. Looks like you've really got me," she placed the back of her hand up to her forehead and preceded in a mockingly dramatic fashion, "Oh, how could I have falling for such an ingenious plot. You Titans are really too smart for me."

"Shut up," Robin snapped.

"Well, come on, Boy Wonder. Why don't you be the first to take a hit at this poor, defenceless little girl," she swung her arms out to her sides, "I dare you."

Robin snarled as he charged forward to take Isis up on her bluff. But with one swift movement, Isis threw off her coat and created a hooked ice blade out of thin air to entangle and deflect Robin's staff. Continuing with the assault, she formed an ice fist around her opposing hand and clocked Robin right across the jaw. And as a final move, she gave him a roundhouse kick right in the stomach, sending the martial arts prodigy flailing backwards into his friends.

For the first time, the Teen Titans got a good look at what their opponent has been working on for the past three days. Gone was her former, casual attire as what she wore now could only be described as a form fitting glossy black suit with cybernetic-like, blue veins running the length of her arms and legs. And fashioned onto her shoulders, hands, and feet were mechanisms fitted with tinted glass domes and lined with small vents. Her eyes were protected behind a blue visor. This suit was nothing like the one Terra wore under the command of Slade, this was sleek; almost stealth like.

She then clicked buttons on each of her palms, causing both of her frosty weapons to melt in an instant and fall to the ground forming a puddle of water. She planted one foot into the puddle and in a moment it was completely adsorbed into her suit. "Do you like it?" She grinned, "It absorbs all water I come in contact with and stores it for me to use at will. Courtesy of Professor Chang, always willing to help out an up and coming super villain."

"You're no super villain!" Cyborg objected as he charged up his sonic cannon, "You're just sick!" And with that he started the battle with a sonic blast aimed directly at the villainy girl. She nimbly dodged aside and flung her arm forward to send a couple of icicles hurling towards her attacker. The icicles were promptly met with Dark Matter as Raven rush forward to engage the girl in hand-to-hand combat. With Dark Matter accenting every swipe of her hands, she managed to keep Isis preoccupied long enough for Starfire to come around to the side and throw a well aimed star bolt at the Icy Diva.

Isis dodged backwards to narrowly avoid Starfire's energy attack; she then disengaged herself from Raven, jumped back a few feet, and threw her open palms to the ground. Causing a strip of icy spikes to bolt out from the ground in two different directions towards both Starfire and Raven, to which the girls evaded by levitating into the air.

Starfire immediately unleashed her eye beams upon her opponent. Isis evaded to the side and looked up to see Beast Boy dive-bombing at her as a falcon. She raised an ice shield to block him but right before the impact, he transformed into an armadillo and rolled up in an armoured ball. With the force of a cannon ball, he shattered the girl's defence and slammed her in the gut.

Isis backed into the canyon wall, wincing in pain. She didn't have any time to recover as a furious half-demon came rocketing right at her. She crafted a spiked wall of ice and sent it against Raven, but Raven quickly enveloped herself in Dark Matter, phased through the oncoming ice wall, and delivered a Dark Matter infused punch to the villainy girl. Isis quickly ducked under as Raven's fist left an imprint on the wall where her head once stood. The Icy Diva then counter attacked with an uppercut to her opponent's face. Raven's head bounced off Isis's fist but then snapped back with glowing white eyes. Relentless, Raven came at Isis with a left hook. Hitting nothing but air she came at her again with the other hand. This time Isis skilfully gripped Raven by the offending arm and, with blue light in her eyes, began to channel her energy through her opponent's flesh as she had once done to Beast Boy. Raven felt an unbearable sting shoot up her arm but managed to stand her ground long enough to give Isis a hefty punch right between the eyes.

Though her visors protected her, the force caused Isis's head to slam against the wall. Lunging back at Raven, she returned the blow with a well-aimed left hook and followed up with a forward kick accented with a pillar of ice shooting out from the sole of her boot to knock Raven away.

Isis took a second to strip the broken visors from her face as a large crack in it, left by Raven's last assault, obscured her vision. She looked up in time to see Cyborg charging up his weapon and she broke away from her position as a sonic blast ripped apart the wall she was just standing against. She sprinted to the side then vaulted a legion of icicles at the silver clad Titan. Cyborg shattered the assault with a sonic wave created by slamming his fists into the ground. As a final move, he unleashed duel sonic blasts, both of them hitting Isis like a freight train. She flew back 20 feet and tumbled to the ground.

Isis jumped to her feet and saw that all of the Titans were advancing on her. "That's it," she thought to herself, "time to stop playing with my food," And with that she stretched her arms to her sides and brought the blue light to her eyes, letting it flow to her open palms. In a moment the Titans halted in their advance to witness flank after flank of icicles emerge from the girl's form. When Isis had a nigh uncountable army of icicles, she unleashed them upon the teenage heroes. Some of the flanks shot straight forward, some of them, arched upwards to come down as a rain of spikes. But never the less, the Titans were mercilessly bombarded with row after row of deadly icicles. Isis grinned menacingly, for once she had complete control over this battle. She was so enthralled that she didn't notice that her breath was running cold or that her fingertips grew numb.

The Titans tried as they might to dodge, deflect, destroy, but one by one, they were all stricken and fell. When Isis had felt that enough was enough. She dropped her arms and the attack came to an abrupt stop. She let out an exalted breath as she surveyed her handiwork. The all mighty Titans were all down on the ground, groaning in pain, barely in any condition to face her. It was a beautiful sight, but still, it wasn't enough. She glanced over to see Terra, the only one whom didn't participate in battle, backed up against the canyon wall, trying to make herself invisible. She saw the panic in her sister's eyes and crafted a wicked idea.

Isis grinned and walked purposefully over to Beast Boy, whom was lying in a semi-conscience state on the ground. He groaned as he struggled to focus his eyes to see Isis crouched down beside him and run a finger down the length of his nose, "This just isn't your day. Eh, Little Freak?" She then gripped him firmly by the collar and hoisted him to his feet. Making sure that Terra could see everything, she kissed him violently on the lips then created a thick ice collar around his neck. Letting him slip from her fingers, the still out-of-it Beast Boy was flung like a rag doll towards the canyon wall. Pinned very firmly against it by his ice collar. Flicking her hand into the air, Isis formed a large icicle above her head. But instead of releasing it, she simply looked at her sister, "Aren't you going to stop me?" she mockingly asked.

Terra looked on with fear and anxiety, she knew that Beast Boy's life depended on her. She worked up as much energy as she could to bring the yellow light to her eyes. Exerting so much effort that it seemed as if the concentration alone would break her, she dislodged a basketball-sized rock from the canyon wall, forced it to come to her side, then tried to hurl it at Isis. But it fell short several feet from its target.

Isis smirked at her sister's pathetic display, "It sucks being powerless, doesn't it?" Her grin became demonic as she turned her attention back to Beast Boy and drew her arm back, preparing to strike, "Your loss."

"Isis, NO!" Terra screamed, but it was too late as the icicle flew on a lethal path towards Beast Boy's head. Time seemed to slow down for Terra and Beast Boy as well, as he looked up to see his demise looming closer with no time or method to evade. This looked to be the grim death of Beast Boy except that, jumping in from the side, Robin's staff came down on the projectile, slamming it to the ground in two pieces.

Finally being of sound and complete mind, Beast Boy managed to transform into a snake and slither out from that which stapled him to the wall. He returned to human form as Terra rushed over to him and buried her head into his chest, professing, "I'm sorry," a dozen times.

Isis scoured at the failed attack as Robin now stood bravely between her and her target, "What's the matter Bird Boy? Couldn't wait your turn? Fine! I'll just deal with you right now them," And with that she crafted a pair of icy battle claws on her hands and dared Robin to make the first move.

Without hesitation, Robin pounced at Isis, leapt in the air, and came down on her with a wide horizontal swing of his staff. To which Isis back flipped to evade. Robin planted his feet onto the ground and reversed the swing of his staff to take another shot at Isis. This time she deflected the attack with her right arm, but the force shattered her battle claw. She lunged at him with the other hand and engraved a row of scratches across his chest. Robin came back with three quick jabs from his staff. Isis dodged the first two and managed to catch the staff in the third move in between her battle claws. Bringing her other hand up to grip the staff, she attempted to pull it away from her opponent. But Robin pulled back just as hard. Isis resorted to spraying Robin in the face with frost, blinding him momentarily. Isis yanked the staff away from him and attempted to strike him with it using a wide, downward swing. Robin wiped the frost from his mask and slipped to the side just in time, allowing the staff to hit the ground. He planted one foot on the staff and used the leverage to deliver a spinning kick to Isis. He managed to knock his opponent back and reclaim his weapon. Furious, Isis let loose a series of icicles in rapid succession. Robin skilfully managed to dodge and deflect every one of them, charge right up to her, and slam her right in the shoulder with a swing of his staff.

The transparent dome embedded into the shoulder of Isis's suit cracked from the impact and the water, forced into a specialized state of compression, was now seeking freedom from between the cracks in the shoulder piece. Isis looked down at the damage in panic, seeing her precious ammunition seep out. Robin saw this as the apparent weak link in her defence and took another swing at the same spot with full force. Isis tried to evade but Robin's staff found its way, utterly shattering Isis's shoulder piece. The water now sprayed out like a fire hose, giving enough force to make Isis stumble to the side. As quickly as she could she clasped her hand over the broken dome, the water still gushed out from between her fingers, and she willed the escaping water to solidify, giving a quick fix to her problem.

Looking down at a meter on her wrist, Isis was shocked at just how much water she lost, "Only 14 percent left?" she said to herself before shooting a glare at Robin and diving at the newly formed pool of water that laid on the ground, hoping to reabsorb it. But an inch before her hand made contact with the water; Dark Matter came between her and the prize and flung her across the canyon. She roughly slammed against the canyon wall and fell to the ground. She furiously clawed her way to her feet and brought the intense blue light to her eyes. The abandoned pool of water froze so instantaneously that the canyon floor actually cracked under the sudden expansion of that which it cradled.

Isis swung her arms forward, forcing the frozen pool to come towards her at breakneck speeds. So focused was she at reclaiming her precious resource that she didn't even bother to levitated away from the ground first, causing it to kick up dust and rubble as it dragged itself towards her.

"Starfire, Stop her!" Robin yelled. And in an instant, the alien girl came in between Isis and the oncoming ice. With monstrous strength, Starfire caught the ice in both hands and struggled to keep it from its destination. Hard as it was since the villainy girl had a magnetic pull on the element. Relentless, Isis planted her feet and increased her concentration to the point where her eyes were smouldering with the blue light.

"You will not have it!" Starfire sneered through her teeth even though she could feel her feet sliding backwards. Isis would have proven her wrong if not for a large green bison that came charging in and slammed her in the side, causing her to loose her concentration. Starfire felt the invisible force give slack and without hesitation, she hurled the ice like a Frisbee far out of Isis's reach into the bay.

With water still trickling down her arm from the patch job, Isis let out a scream of rage and prepared and icicle to impale the interloping changeling. But before she could launch it, she was struck in the arm by a baseball-sized rock. She looked over to see Terra bravely standing a few feet away, holding a fist full of rocks in one hand. Furious beyond comprehensible thought, Isis charged at her sister, but she was forced back against the canyon wall as Terra used what remained of her powers to fling off one rock after another, hitting her sister with the force of a pellet gun. Backed against the wall and enraged beyond belief, Isis so longer cared about conserving what remained of her ammunition as she fired off a barrage of icicles in every direction.

"Cyborg, now!" Robin ordered as he easily deflected a few icicles that happened to find their way towards him. Ready to unleash his secret weapon that he has been saving for just this moment, Cyborg swung his left arm forward. But instead of going through the usual transformation to make a sonic cannon, his arm underwent an entirely different conversion, sporting a couple of tubes that snaked out form his forearm and attached firmly to the stubs on his shoulder pads while emitting a red light from under the panels.

"You shouldn't have underestimated us," Cyborg said before he let loose the secret weapon. From the end of his converted arm shot out a wide, red beam akin to that from the metal cylinder that Isis fought as part of her training. This beam however, did not narrow to a fine point, but instead remained at a wide area, encompassing Isis completely.

Isis could feel the affects of this device immediately; it was like walking into an oven. She tried to counteract with ice, but before she could do that she noticed that the patchwork on her shoulder was melting away. In a moment the ice on her shoulder gave away and the water burst out from her suit again. She attempted to freeze over the broken shoulder piece again but she couldn't lower the water's temperature fast enough under Cyborg's heat beam. As Isis's precious water hit the ground and evaporated under the extreme heat, she soon found that escape was her only choice. She attempted to run away but Cyborg easily followed after her with the heat beam. Exhausted from battle and growing dizzy from the heat, she tripped and collapsed on the ground.

Down on her hands and knees, she looked up it see Raven standing over her. "It's over, Isis," Raven told her, "You're completely out of your element, even with the Gaia you're utterly powerless. So just give up and save yourself the humiliation."

Rage flashed in Isis's eyes as she lunged herself at Raven, an open palm aimed at the half-demon's throat. Unfazed, Raven brushed Isis's arm aside as it came at her and swiftly backhanded Isis across the face. This sent the pathetic girl spiralling onto the ground to lie in a panting mass of defeat. Cyborg let off on the heat beam.

Snarling like a beast, Isis darted her gaze around to the Titans whom stood over her, daring her to make another move. Her eyes twitched with an uncontrollable rage to which she could find no release. Finally, she cast her gaze on Terra, standing there despondently. Bringing about an odd air of calmness, Isis slowly, and cautiously, brought herself to her feet, and walked, step-by-step, over to her sister. Terra shifted her eyes to the side once or twice, but remained as focused as she could on her demonic counterpart inching towards her. The other Titans didn't try to stop her, but stood prepared in case she did try to pull something.

Isis looked her sister up and down and slowly cocked her head to the side, her eyes were tired, her hair drenched in sweat. "Are you afraid of me?" she asked.

"Why should I be?" Terra answered sharply.

"Do I scare you?" Isis pressed.

"No!"

A moment of silence flowed between them before Isis added, "Too bad… because I've been afraid of you all my life."

Terra was set back by that confession, "What happened to you? What have I ever done to make you hate me so much?"

Isis's eyes narrowed, her lip curled, something inside her broke in half. Instead of giving a straightforward answer, she simply drew her head back and shot it forward, giving Terra a solid head butt. Terra sprawled to the ground and Isis proceeded to kick her while she was down.

Beast Boy immediately stepped in and punched the offending girl in the face, sending her to the ground, before coming to Terra's aid. "I'm fine, I'm fine," Terra assured him while he helped her to her feet.

"Don't worry," Beast Boy said, "She can't hurt you anymore."

His promise was met with laugher from the villainy girl whom did not bother to rise from the ground. Her laugh was hysterical, like the green boy's words came as some kind of joke to her. It echoed throughout the canyon, loud, mocking laugher. Had she truly gone mad, or was there something she knew, that the Titans didn't?

Author's Notes:  
Well, here we go, I just finished writing the author's notes for the next chapter so I don't really have anything left to say here. I finished this rewrite about a week before I started on the next chapter. But I chose not to upload it then because I wasn't sure if FFN would alert my loyal readers if a chapter was being replaced. So now I'm uploading them both together and you have a whole chapter in a half to read. Enjoy.


	10. Method to her Madness

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 10: Method to her Madness

Beginning notes:  
In response to various complaints about certain elements of the previous chapter such as the fight scene being too short, Isis defeated too easily, and Robin throwing away his moral values, I have rewritten chapter 9 to fix all of those problems. So I strongly suggest that you go back and re-read chapter 9 before reading this chapter. Not from the start if you don't want to, just from the beginning of the fight scene. Enjoy.

"Get up!" Robin demanded of the defeated Isis. The beaten and worn girl reluctantly did as she was told and Robin clasped both of her hands in large, mechanical handcuffs. Her face was emotionless. Her eyes were distant. It wasn't like she was solemn or remorseful; it was more like she was waiting.

"When we get close to the bay, do you think you can hold her under a sleep spell?" Robin asked Raven as he began to lead Isis back down the canyon.

"Easily," Raven confirmed.

"That's what you were waiting for, wasn't it?" Robin asked Isis with a tug on her arm, "To get close to the water again? Well you're out of luck. We know all your tricks"

"You shouldn't be so cocky," Isis quietly advised.

"Shut up!" Robin spat as he pushed her forward, forcing her to begin walking down the canyon. Isis offered no resistance and began the slow trek.

"How are you feeling?" Beast Boy asked Terra as they followed the group.

"I'm fine," she answered flatly, truly vexed with how messed up her life was and convinced that it couldn't possibly get better simply by imprisoning her twin sister.

"Are you sure?" Beast Boy pressed, "She did hit you pretty hard."

"Thanks for the concern, but I can handle myself. I just want to go back to the Tower and pretend that this horrible day never happened."

The rest of the slow journey went on without conversation. They were all tired, worn, and beaten. All they wanted to do was call this day to an end and see a brighter tomorrow. But in less than a minute, Isis abruptly stopped. "Keep moving, we don't have any patience for your games!" Robin said with another push.

Isis jerked forward but stood her ground. The persistent smirk on her lips became broader, "…It's coming," she sang, "I can feel it."

"You are not in a position to be threatening us!" Starfire warned.

Just then, a small pellet of ice, no bigger than a marble, fell onto the ground. Isis stared at the pellet happily then turned to face the Titans with a smile, "It wasn't a threat."

In a second, another pellet of ice fell from the heavens, than another and another. Soon the ground was littered with them. It quickly became apparent to everyone that the worst of all possible luck had befallen them. It was a hailstorm.

"Raven! Knock her out!" Robin yelled. Raven tried to comply by merely beginning her mantra. But Isis only looked at her with feral eyes engulfed in blue light and a million pellets swept up from the ground and assaulted Raven like an enraged hive of bees. Raven shielded her face as the pellets swarmed and stung her.

Without order, the rest of the Titans came to attack Isis. But unfortunately, her minions were plentiful and constantly growing in number. All of the heroes were struck- rapidly and hard, from every possible direction. While the hailstorm came focused on the Titans like a plague of flesh-hungry locust, Isis brought some of her minions to chip away at that which bounded her hands. When her restraints where weakened enough, she broke her arms free and she swung her hands forward, silhouetted in the blue light.

There was nothing that the Titans could do; any hopes or efforts to separate Isis from her element were completely shot to hell. No matter how bravely they fought, they were simply out numbered a million to one. Isis backed them against a wall, her hands pushing them back with their command over the flurry of ice.

With the Titans completely pinned down, Isis deterred one hand to rise into the air. Above her head she crafted five jagged icicles, composed of airborne ice pellets.

"This is it, Titans!" Isis called out, "You have failed. It is impossible to fight me now. You might as well face it; you are all going to die. Perhaps you could have lived a little longer if you didn't insist on protecting my sister. Believe me, she is not worth throwing your lives away."

Without another word she signalled the firing squad to execute the row of heroes pinned against the wall. But at the last possible moment, Terra jumped in front of the helpless heroes. "Stop!" She yelled.

Isis's face shook in a start and she quickly willed her creations to spread out of the way, clattering harmlessly against the ground. "Get out of the way, Terra!" she demanded in a growl.

"No!" Terra shot back, spreading her arms out wide to protect her friends, "If- if you want to get to them, than you're going to have to go through me!"

Isis laughed, clearly seeing how afraid her sister was despite her bold actions, "You're powerless now! I've already gotten what I wanted from you. What makes you think you could possibly stop me?"

"I've already stopped you," Terra pointed out.

Isis frowned and brought another jagged icicle into creation, "One more time, Terra! Either move out of the way or I will kill you!"

"I'm not afraid of you," Terra stated with eyes squinted closed.

Isis took a moment to hesitate before she motioned to lunge her arm forward. But she simply couldn't. She even tried closing her eyes so that she wouldn't have to see but she just couldn't 't will herself to do it. Soon, she resulted in sending the icicle hurling against the far wall in a fit of rage. She then looked back at her sister in contempt.

Terra was at first shocked at Isis's actions, but then she slowly dropped her arms and stepped closer to her sister, "You… you can't do it, can you?" She assumed as she placed a hand on her twin's shoulder. Isis flinched but did not reject her, "As much as you hate me you can't bring yourself to cross that line. I know Isis; I know what you're going through right now. I've been there myself. Please don't make the same mistake I did. I can help you."

Isis's expression slowly became warm. She wore a smile, but it was not her characteristic smile of beastly intent, this one appeared to be genuine. She drifted an arm up and placed it on Terra's shoulder. Then, she looked her straight in the eyes and said, "…You're wrong."

Terra didn't have time to absorb that statement as Isis flexed her fingers and sent a sharp, frosty pain shooting through her sister's shoulder. Terra fell one knee, screeching in pain, soon to be shut up as Isis kneed her in the face. The poor girl spiralled to the ground near where the Titans remained against the wall. Beast Boy immediately came to her aid.

Terra, with a hand clasped to her face, looked up in horror as her sister created an ice platform and began to levitate a few feet over her. Her eyes have lost their humanity in the blue light, her hair rippled in the violent winds.

"Don't assume that just because I don't want to kill you, doesn't mean that I have anything against causing you a great deal of pain," Isis stated, even her voice had lost any compassion that girl managed to reserve, "Believe me, I've dreamt about this moment for far too long to get turned around by some sappy little speech you've made up on the spot. And truth be told, I can only kill you once. No, I want more than that from you, I want you to suffer for as long as I see fit!"

"Isis," Terra pleaded through the bitterly cold winds whipping her hair around, "Why are you doing this? I'm your sister!"

"Don't you dare ask me to justify myself!" Isis snapped, an extra burst of cold wind accented her anger, nearly knocking the Titans on their feet, "You know exactly why I'm doing this! Or have you forgotten what you did? If you have than you deserve to die right here and now!" She formed an icicle in the air and lunged it at Terra's feet. If nothing but to make her jerk back in fear.

She could deny or ignore it as much as she liked, she could live her life pretending that it never happened, but Terra knew exactly what Isis meant. There was no hiding it anymore; the truth was coming out, "No! Please Isis! I said I was sorry! I didn't have any control back then! I didn't mean to, it was an accident!"

"Terra, what is she talking about?" Beast Boy asked. She tried to answer him but couldn't find the words.

"You have done horrible things, dear sister," Isis continued, "Unforgivable things!"

"No Isis, don't tell them!"

"But this was your greatest sin of all!"

"Stop it!" Terra yelled as she used what remained of her power to send a flurry of rocks at Isis, which she effortlessly encased in ice before they could hit her and sent them souring back to her sister at twice the force. One of them hit Terra in the stomach, another in the shin. She fell to the ground wrenching in pain and looked up to her sister in one last plea for mercy, but Isis only returned a hate filled glare.

"Do you remember the look on their faces?" Isis asked, enjoying every torturous moment, "Yes, I bet you do. I bet that you're haunted by them every night. But somehow, that doesn't begin to make up for what you did!"

"Please… no," Terra wheezed through the pain in her stomach.

"You know what? I'm glad Terra, I'm glad that you've found some people who you can call friends, I'm glad that you found yourself a nice little boyfriend too, and even a nice place to call home. Because now I can destroy everything that you hold dear, I will obliterate all that you tried so hard to gain in your life! I will make you pay for killing our parents!"

The last part of Isis's confession echoed throughout the canyon. "Terra… is this true?" Starfire asked. But the poor girl didn't answer her, only began sobbing into her hands.

"Oh yes, it's very true. I remember that day all too clearly," Isis said before staring into her open palm, "Did you know… that I was still holding onto her hand; onto our mother's hand, when she was crushed between two slabs of rock," she quivered and let on a shallow chuckle, "Do you realize... the affect that can have on a 10-year-old girl?"

All of the Titans were speechless. Isis wasted no time in cutting both of her arms through the air. Upon her command, millions of airborne ice pellets linked together into long chains and twined around the Titans like pythons. All that remained free was Terra. She did not wish to kill them yet… at least, not for the moment. Seeing the reaction they had to the truth, she couldn't help but tell them more, if only to further torture Terra before she slit their throats.

She knelt down in front of Terra and gripped her firmly by the face, making sure that her sister kept eye contact with her. This was the moment that she has been waiting years for, and she was going to make it last.

"Do you remember how Mommy and Daddy always gave all of their attention to you?"

"Isis… that's not-"

"Shut up!" Isis spat, errant saliva spattered Terra's face, "Did you think that they cared for you? That they loved you? Of course you would think that, you were their favourite little girl, the one with all the power. Well, guess what my little natural disaster. They were AFRAID of you… WE were afraid of you! Have to keep Little Terra quiet and happy or else she'll loose control again and level another city block!"

"Leave her alone!" Beast Boy screamed. Isis only twitched an eye at him and his icy bonds coiled tighter around him. In this distracted moment, Isis didn't see Terra grip something in her hand.

"Isis… I have something to tell you…" Terra whispered.

"What?" Isis snapped at her, bringing herself back down to her sister's level.

"… You're a terrible sister!" And with that she swung an arm forward and shoved a gracious handful of dirt into Isis's eyes.

Caught in total shock, Isis stumbled backwards, loosing all concentration on whatever ice she employed to keep the Titans at bay. She rubbed her eyes vigorously, trying to get her vision back. She heard someone yell out "Titans, GO!" and the first thing she saw was a blurry mass of silver and blue getting bigger. Then it hit her… Cyborg's fist, that is.

Isis' vision narrowed as she staggered backwards, sheer willpower the only thing keeping her on her feet. She shoved aside the overwhelming desire to fall asleep and used it as a weapon, launching her weariness and pain against her adversary like a weapon all its own. She rapidly fastened a long staff for herself out of ice, drawing on the ambient energy of the storm. She was about to renew her assault on Cyborg when she caught a glimpse of Starfire out of her periphery vision; the fiery-haired alien swooped in low for an attack run. Isis feinted left to draw Cyborg's attention, then launched herself forward, using her staff like a pole vault to move gracefully out of Starfire's strafing run. Her boots impacted Cyborg's head with a satisfying smash as she completed her arc, letting go of the staff and landing on her feet. She reached a hand over her head to summon the weapon back to her after sticking her landing; she then launched it in Robin's general direction lest she be caught in the crossfire.

Beast Boy lumbered at her in the form of a charging mammoth, but Isis decided to ignore the threat and go after his primary weakness. Fastening two daggers, she rushed her sister, catching the emotionally crippled blonde by surprise. Terra struggled uselessly against the superior strength that the suit afforded Isis, and found herself rapidly driven back against the wall her friends had formerly been imprisoned against. The sound of an all-too-familiar chant greeted Isis' ears, and she was forced to divide her attention.

"My friends won't let you hurt me anymore than I'll let you hurt them!" Terra insisted.

"Really?" Isis asked, flicking her right wrist in one fluid motion, she morphed one of her daggers into a stable and firmly pinned her sister's opposing hand against the wall. Not missing a beat, Isis used her right hand to conjure up a shield against Raven's incoming barrage. The barrier did not last long, but then, Isis only needed a moment's respite.

The dark matter talon Raven conjured broke straight through the ice barrier and ripped into the wall. Raven stepped back in shock, thinking that she let on too much. No one could tell what happened as the dust raised from the impact obscured what was going on between the twins.

In a moment, two figures shot straight up from the obscurity on a floating ice platform. Isis stood in the centre with her arm wrapped around her sister at her front. She held a razor sharp ice blade at Terra's neck.

"I'll have to say that I underestimated you all!" Isis called out, "You are indeed tougher and smarter than you look. And I know all too well that the only reason why I have the upper hand right now is because of this favourable weather. But as soon as it stops my resources will become limited again… unless it doesn't stop; unless it never stops!"

"What the hell are you babbling about!" Cyborg yelled.

"If my dear sister can trigger and stop a volcano without even knowing what she was doing, imagine what I can do with this storm! I can see it now, a never ending hailstorm big enough to tear this city apart, bit by bit," she then yanked Terra closer and whispered in her ear, "What do you think Terra, will that make up for all of the homes you destroyed, all of the lives you ruined?"

"Isis, you can't be serious!" Terra retorted, "I know I've done a lot of bad things in the past but it won't help if you kill all of those innocent people!"

"I don't care!" Isis snarled into her twin's ear, "I'm only doing this to see you suffer! Anyone who dies to meet that end is entirely your fault! Their blood will be on your hands!"

"You're insane!"

"I'm not insane, it's the rest of the world that's crazy! Taking someone as terrible as you and making her out to be a hero, it's sickening!"

"And so what if you do? How many people will it take, Isis? A hundred? Five thousand? A million? How many people will it take until you're satisfied?"

Isis seemed to savour the reaction she knew she would get out of her sister before even responding. "Until there's no one left but just the two of us, sis. As it should be."

All of the Titans motioned to advance on her but she glared at them and brought the blade higher on Terra's neck. "Not so fast!" She warned, "In case you were all born yesterday, this is officially a hostage situation. And the deal is that you can't follow me, or Terra gets it!"

"You're bluffing!" Robin called out, "You said yourself that you couldn't kill Terra!"

"Oh, believe me, there are so many things that I can do to her that wouldn't involve killing," This inhuman statement sent a shiver down the collective spines of the Titans, "Congratulations, you've extended your life spans by a little bit. I'll be back to slit your throats when it is truly impossible to stop me. Say goodbye to your friends, Terra."

And without another word, the ice platform began to carry the twins off toward the city. Beast Boy wanted nothing more than to fly up there and rescue Terra. He shook with anticipation, but Robin gripped his shoulder and held him back, knowing that for Terra's sake, they all had to hold back. Isis never turned her back on the heroes until she flew out of vision beyond the cliffs.

In a moment after Isis and Terra disappeared, Beast Boy swung around to face Robin, "Why did you let her get away? We could have taken her!"

"We couldn't," Robin calmly explained, "None of use could have made it to her in time. Moral barriers or not, Isis is insane. I don't even want to think about what she's capable of doing."

"So we're just going to let her get away with Terra instead of taking the risk?"

"What have I told you before, Beast Boy? Fight smarter, not harder." He then flipped open a handheld device with a screen that lit up, displaying a map of the city and a blinking blue triangle slowly moving across the map. Beast Boy looked curiously at the screen and Robin smiled at him, "What? Do you really think that in all of that fighting, I wouldn't have put a tracking device on her? Now, come on, we have a city, and a Titan to save."

Author's Notes:  
Woo, excuse me as I wait for the skin to grow back on my fingertips. Not only did I write this chapter, but before even touching it, I re-wrote the previous one. So any comments you have about the new chapter 9 can go in your review for this chapter. I hope that, with the truth revealed, you can understand why Isis is as messed up as she is. Heck I think it even explains why Terra s the way she is in the series. And believe me, as much as I love to write action scenes, I thought my head was going to pop writing all of the action that went into these two chapters. I can only hope that everyone can follow the action as well as I intended. Well, until next time, read and review or I'll eat all your waffles… and then you'll have no waffles for breakfast… and then you'll starve to death before lunchtime…. I really need to step away from this computer once in a while.


	11. High Above the City Streets

In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 11: High Above the City Streets

Isis hovered along the city skyline on her ice platform with Terra in tow. The storm was still strong and the wind was so bitter. Terra shivered from the cold but Isis seemed unfazed, almost as if she welcomed it.

"Where are you taking me?" Terra asked as she sat huddled by her sister's feet on the floating ice platform.

Isis ignored her, surveying the rooftops for the perfect place to exact her plan. She finally settled her sights on the tallest skyscraper right in the middle of the city, "Do you see that, Terra?" Isis asked, pointing toward their destination, "That is where it's all going to end."

Isis then felt like they were being followed and spun her head around to look for the perpetrator, but she saw nothing among the tall buildings that was out of place. She huffed and turned back around to continue towards the roof of the skyscraper.

Meanwhile, less than a mile away, if one were looking closely enough, one might see light rippling as it was being bent around the T-ship in its stealth mode. The ship itself was completely invisible save for the occasional visual distortion akin to looking through a glass filled with water. It hovered slowly behind the twins, making no noise at all.

"Where are you going?" Robin rhetorically asked as he watched Isis intently like he was waiting for her to make a chess move. The still abundant hail pellets bounced off the glass dome of his cockpit with nothing more than a muffled 'ping' sound.

"Why do I feel like we're walking into the belly of the beast?" Raven droned, "Wherever she's going, we don't stand a chance with this hail storm above us. Maybe it's best if we just wait it out."

"We can't keep waiting," Robin lectured impatiently, "Whatever she's planning has something to do with this storm. And if what she said was true, than all the time in the world wouldn't make our chances any better."

"You can't possibly believe what she said," Cyborg objected, "I mean, a never-ending hailstorm powerful enough to destroy the city? That's impossible."

"I believe that we have seen much stranger occurrences in our time," Starfire added, "With Isis being as powerful and … unstable as she is, I do not wish to think of what she could do."

"The heck with Isis," Beast Boy growled, "I just want to get Terra back!"

"She nearly took your head off, man," Cyborg reminded, "Isis seems to have a personal vendetta against you. Maybe it would be better if you don't rush head first into this."

"Ask me if I care!" Beast Boy snapped.

"Quiet, everyone!" Robin interrupted, "She's landing."

Isis slowly lowered her platform onto the roof of the skyscraper. When she made contact she kicked Terra off her platform and tried to reabsorb it into her suit. But the water only poured out through the broken shoulder piece. This caused the device on her wrist to beep and flash, reminding her of the suit's malfunction. "Whatever," she sneered as she ripped the device from her wrist and tossed it over the edge of the building, "I won't need to scavenge for ice when this is over."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Terra asked.

Isis walked right past her and stepped up to the skyscraper's lightning rod. She paced around it, letting a finger skate along the surface of the rod. She then stopped and placed an open palm against it, "All I need is to get close enough to the storm clouds, and something by which to channel my energy," she then brought the blue light to her eyes and sent a pulse of energy through her arm and into the lightning rod. The 30-foot tall shaft crackled with blue energy, "Tell me dear sister… are you afraid of me now?"

"Isis, nothing that you're saying is making any sense!" Terra protested, "How do you even know all of this?"

"Because, dear sister. While you spent your lifetime barely being able to keep your powers under control, I was experimenting with mine, learning the finer points of it, what it can and cannot do… and then I started to get interested in yours; in the Gaia," Isis let out a mocking laugh, "You really are weak. You've had this power since you were born, then I take it from you and wield it like you could only wish to. At least now I proved which one of us is stronger! Obviously, I could never attempt something as big as this before, but with your Gaia, I…" She trailed off squinting her eyes to see into the distance.

Without another word, she deterred her energy away from the lightning rod and waved her arms in the air, crafting a giant icicle and launched it seemingly at nothing. The T-ship, now advancing on the villainy girl, shed its cloaking field in an instant and unleashed a powerful stream from its sonic blaster. The sonic beam obliterated the oncoming icicle and hit Isis at full force.

She flailed off the rooftop like a rag doll and regained her bearings in time to group a mass of ice pellets under her feet and create a new platform. She flew back up to the roof where she was greeted by heavy artillery fire from the T-ship. Raven and Beast Boy, in pterodactyl form, flew out of their respective cockpits followed by Starfire, with Robin in tow. Cyborg quickly set the T-ship on autopilot and leapt out of his cockpit to land onto the rooftop with a deafening 'slam' sound, actually cracking the pavement under his feet.

They all stood there, proud and strong, standing between Isis and Terra.

Robin planted a foot forward and extended a finger towards the villainy girl, "It's over, Isis! There's nowhere left to run! It ends here!"

Isis's breath became laboured, not from fatigue, but from pure anger. Her eyes and hands were set ablaze with the blue light, her hair flailed about under the sheer power of her own aura. "Why… don't… you… just… DIE!" She screeched as she swung her arms upward, summoning every single airborne ice pellet within her range of influence to congregate above her so quickly, that it created a void in the storm for a solid moment before it was filled in by more falling hail.

She crafted the collective ice into a giant, crude buzz saw and launched it horizontally at the Titans. Robin flipped over it as it came to him. Starfire and Raven easily levitated out of the way. And Cyborg stood his ground and met the assault by timely pounding it into the ground with his fist. The buzz saw shattered into a multitude of pieces, most of which clattered harmlessly to the side. But one particularly large shard came flipping through the air on a collision course with Beast Boy.

He was nearly run through if Terra had not yelled, "Look out!" and leapt in to push him out of harms way. The shard came so close to striking Terra that it clipped off a bit from the end of her long hair which flowed behind her. The shard then continued its path unopposed until it struck firmly into the floor with a sword-like 'shunk' sound.

Beast Boy looked up at Terra who was lying on top of him, "Terra… you saved me."

"I guess I'm not completely useless," she smiled.

Beast Boy smiled back until he witnessed Isis leap into the air and encase herself in a giant icicle, about to perform her signature move. Beast Boy quickly rolled over so that he was on top of Terra and transformed into a giant land tortoise. The villainy girl's icicle kick shattered upon Beast Boy's rock hard shell and the girl within pounced off the changeling and landed on her feet. Beast boy returned to human form, standing in front of Terra, and glowered at his opponent.

"It's nice to see just how much you care for her," Isis smirked, "But I told you not to follow me, and you did. A promise is a promise, Little Freak! Terra is mine! Oh, but you can have her back once I get through with her. She might even need you to spoon-feed her! I'll bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Terra recoiled at this threat but Beast Boy stood his ground, "Say it all you want! That doesn't mean that it's gonna happen!"

"Indeed," Isis smiled, "By the way, Terra. Your boyfriend is a lousy kisser."

"Wait, what? You kissed my sister!" Terra asked Beast Boy in a revolted tone.

"Um… sort of… I mean… c-can we talk about this later?" Beast Boy stammered.

"Typical man!" Isis laughed at the couple. "They never want to talk about their relationships. Or their other women. Isn't that right, Little Freak? We were very close, you and I, weren't we? You made it so easy. Of course, I really can't blame you. After all, I always have been the pretty one. Honestly, Terra, if I were you, I'd dump him. I mean, he's easily turned by a pretty face. I'm sure I could've made him forget all about you if I'd wanted. And if I could do it, well, what about when someone who would actually want him comes along? You really don't have very much to offer."

"You bitch!" Terra foolishly pushed her heroic protector aside and charged at Isis.

"Terra! Wait!" Beast Boy yelled in vain.

"Yes, Terra. Come a little closer," Isis simpered under her breath as she crafted an ice dagger in her hand behind her back. Just as the twins where about to meet and Isis was about to swing her arm forward, a wall of dark matter came between them and Isis was pelted with a combination attack from Cyborg's Sonic Cannon and Starfire's eye beams.

"What have I told you about emotions? And controlling them?" Raven asked Terra as she appeared at her side.

"As far as you're concerned, control isn't something I'm good at." Terra bit off, then slowly backed down, realizing she was being a burden to her friends. "I'm sorry, Raven."

Raven gave a huff, "Okay, I'm teleporting you to somewhere safe. Let us handle this, you'd only get in the way."

"No, wait!" Terra stopped her, "I promised you! I said that I wouldn't run away!"

"You mean you could hear me back then?" Raven blinked. Terra only looked at her with the most determined look in her eyes. Raven hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Alright, fine. Just don't get yourself killed."

"Hey Raven? Thanks. For believing in me. I won't let you down."

"Whatever," Raven returned in a disinterested tone before rejoining the fray.

Terra rolled her eyes as the sorceress disappeared. "Oh right, I forgot. She's always like that."

Beast Boy chuckled. "Actually, she's usually way harsh. I'd say she might be starting to… tolerate you."

"I'm still angry with you." Terra changed the subject.

"I'll explain later. This is the fighting evil portion of our day!"

Back in the battle, Isis fought hand-to-hand with Robin when Raven emerged from the ground behind her to add to her problems. Isis glanced back to see Dark Matter expanding over her and quickly ducked under Robin's fist, punched him in the gut, and flipped him over to collide with Raven.

Isis took this moment to escape from the flank and bolted off to the side where she was met with an aerial bombardment from Starfire's star bolts. She sprinted left to right then erected an ice shield to block a group of star bolts that she couldn't evade. Her makeshift shield shattered upon contact with the energy attack and Isis quickly brought the shattered remains of her shield to fly up and keep Starfire company. Starfire floated back as she shot off an array of star bolts and short pulse eye blasts at the abundant ice shards that came at her.

Isis, in this distracted moment, didn't see a big green gorilla slam her with both fists in her side, sending her stumbling towards the railing along the edge of the roof. She caught the railing firmly to regain her balance and looked back to see that the offending gorilla had morphed into a triceratops and was now charging right at her.

She quickly raised her arms up in front of her face, instinctively summoning a cluster of ice particles to further her defence. But all her defences were shattered when Beast Boy's armour plated head ripped through her ice wall and hit her with the force of a freight train. The feeble steel railing and the cement holding it to the rest of the building broke apart and Isis began a freefall off the roof, slipping away in her plummet beyond the obscurity of the hailstorm

All the Titans gathered near the edge where the girl fell, not sure if she was down for the count or not.

"Beast Boy, do you not think that was a bit… excessive?" Starfire concerned.

"I'm sure it'll take more than that to finish her off," Raven droned, "If we're lucky, she'll simply be too tired to keep fighting."

"Let's not count on it." Cyborg quipped.

"Agreed." Robin nodded. "We need to organize. We're not coordinated. We need to turn her weaknesses against her."

"She hasn't exhibited many." Raven countered.

"Maybe not. But she's desperate. She came here for a reason, and it wasn't to fight us. She's making mistakes that we aren't taking advantage of. She doesn't want to fight us here."

"What makes you so sure?" Cyborg asked.

"Because she used Terra as an insurance policy back in the gorge. She didn't want us following her, so we did anyway. Now she's having trouble regaining the upper hand. She's angry."

"When I get through with her, she'll be way worse than angry!" Beast Boy roared.

"Talk like that and you'll play right into her hands." Robin shook his head. "Isis is a lot of things, but she isn't stupid. You don't think it got quiet all of a sudden so that we could regroup, do you? She's planning her attack. And we need to be doing the same thing."

"Spoken like a true general." Raven crossed her arms over her chest.

"Robin's leadership has always been an asset." Starfire countered. "He is right."

"I'm tired of losing." Robin's eyes narrowed. "All we've done since this started is retreat. No matter what we do, we always seem to be playing on her turf, her rules. No more. Whatever she's planning, we're not going to give her the chance to carry it out. This isn't going to be like fighting Slade, or Mumbo, or Mad Mod. Isis doesn't have some lofty goals, or delusions of grandeur. You heard her. She wants us dead. I don't know about you, but I don't intend to let her have her way."

"The lightning rod," Terra cut in, everyone turned their gaze toward her. "She said that she was going to use it for something. Something about it… and the Gaia, and this storm. I don't know exactly."

"Does this have to do with that perpetual storm she was yammering about?" Cyborg asked.

Raven set her sights on the lightning rod in question, sifting through her extensive knowledge of the magic arts and the medahuman phenomenon. Her eyes widened when she came to the realization, "It's a catalyst!" She announced, " That's why she came up here! She's going to-"

Just then, humongous icicles jutted out from the floor that they were standing on. The Titans backed away as the icicles twisted in their position and tore the whole corner of the rooftop apart. Following the chaos, Isis herself shot up from beyond the edge of the building on a floating ice platform. The giant icicles that caused the damage came to her sides like loyal hounds, along with a legion of other icicles of varying sizes. She stood high above the Titans, looking down on them like an angered god. Her dark silhouette was accented with intensely glowing eyes and hands. The storm howled demonically as a voice for her contempt.

"Do you think I'm screwing around?" Isis screamed at the top of her lungs, "That's it, I'm through playing nice with you!"

"That was playing nice?" Cyborg muttered under his breath.

Without another word, Isis led her army forward, coming in for a reckless strafing attack upon the Titans. She swept through towards the lightning rod, having her pets clear the path of any would-be heroes who might stand in her way. When she came to the lightning rod, she leapt off the platform and willed her giant icicles to form into a wide circle around her and begin spinning at lethal velocities. Just in case anyone decided to jump up there and stop her.

She took one look at her opponents and willed the blue light in her left hand to intensify, bringing it up so that all of the Titans could see it. "I do not make idle threats!" she growled before she lunged her open palm against the lightning rod. This time, the lightning rod didn't just crackle with her energy; it was downright set ablaze by her power.

"I have to stop her!" Raven declared as she propelled herself into the air with Dark Matter and sent a pair of slashes streaming from her hands towards Isis's barrier. Her efforts broke a gap in Isis's protection and Raven threw herself forward to take Isis on.

Isis brought her free hand to the rod and whipped it back, letting her abundant energy arch out from the lighting rod and crack Raven across the chest. Raven let out a howl of pain and flailed back, striking the ground with no attempt to break her fall. Starfire came to her dark friend's aid to find Raven shivering in bitter coldness and a layer of frost scabbed over where the energy hit her.

Isis forced her power to strengthen even more and the light around her free hand glowed like a torch. A very faint blue haze began to emanate from her whole body. She gripped the lightning rod with her right hand and the rod was engulfed with so much energy that it was impossible to contain it. In a blinding flash of light, the lighting rod let loose the overwhelming force into the sky as a jagged bolt of lightning.

The bolt pierced the storm clouds and rippled throughout the sky. The clouds immediately became to twist and darken as if they were stricken with some kind of plague. Jagged arches of Isis's power leapt from cloud to cloud, infecting it more, causing it to become darker; bigger. Then the inevitable happened.

The first of Isis's new army came down upon the shed atop the roof that led to the stairs. It tore the structure apart with monstrous size and force. But it was not only the rooftop, giant balls of ice, many as large as basketballs, and many more sharpened to icicles, raining down all over the city. Many buildings were pieced clean through and cars sitting idly on the streets below buckled into the ground when hit with this new threat.

Raven awoke with a gasp as she quickly brought her hands to the sky and summoned the apparition of a raven, her soul self, to blanket her friends from the intensified storm. She wished she had the power to shield the entire city, but this was the best of her capacity.

Isis's barrier floated aside, making way for their queen. Isis stepped down from her perch, the lighting rod finally given rest from her power. What was most disturbing was that her body had been completely set ablaze by her own powers. Engulfed in blue fire, her hands and eyes glowed so intensely they nearly overshadowed her form. Each step forward that she took came at great effort, as the ground would freeze over with each contact of her foot.

"My god!" Robin exclaimed, "What has she become?"

"I…AM… the GAIA!" Isis's voice bellowed, "This is MY will! This cannot be STOPPED! My goal is COMPLETE! I no LONGER give mercy to you or ANYONE! Your… death… comes… NOW!"

She didn't have to gesture, she didn't even have to move. Every icicle possible came to fall on the Titans. Raven strengthened her force field, but the icicles sought to twist themselves in, stretching the force field inward like a balloon ready to pop.

"I… can't… hold… it!" Raven wheezed as she fell to one knee, sweat forming on her face as she struggled to keep her hands in the air. More giant icicles came to add to the pressure like needles on a pincushion. Raven cried out in agony as a lapse in strength caused the force field to buckle in a few feet. The points of the icicles came prone to the Titans whom all huddled together inside the dome. Only a thin layer of Dark Matter separated them from certain death.

"Beast boy, I'm so sorry!" Terra cried as she held her beloved.

"Don't be scared, Terra. This isn't the end." He consoled her, barely being able to convince himself.

"Yes it is!" she sobbed, "And it's all my fault!"

"Terra! Listen to me. No matter what happens, I don't want you to blame yourself for this! You are not a bad person. You're a hero. You will always be a hero! You've made mistakes but that never changes who you are right now! You're a good person! You're a friend! You're the best friend I ever had and I couldn't imagine living in a world without you! And…" The barrier fell in another few feet. Beast Boy could feel Terra shivering in his arms. Raven was at her breaking point. In a few more seconds there would be nothing to protect them. He clenched his eyes closed and held Terra as tight as he could, "… I love you."

And that was it. Raven fell to the ground, the force field shattered, and every icicle was free to strike. All the icicles forced themselves inward. Piling together in one sick movement accented with an echoing 'shink' sound. And then silence.

And so the assault did rest in a massive pile of bladed ice where the Titans once stood proud and brave. Isis took a moment to draw it all in before she let out a demonic laugh to the heavens which she lay claim. Her laugh was loud, inhuman; it spread throughout the city that was under her siege. Nothing stood in her way now. She had won. Then something at her feet caught her attention.

The cement floor that she stood on began to crack and splinter apart. She staggered back, watching the cracks spread and the concrete tiles dislodge. She quickly realized what was happening and immediately swung her arm towards the pile of icicles. The pile of ice brushed aside with her force to reveal that not a single body lie under it, only a sizable hole in the floor where the Titans once stood.

She looked back at the floor before her in time to witness it burst apart with the aid of sonic blasts, dark matter, green energy, and explosions. Isis attempted to move out of the way but small chunks of pavement around her feet snagged her by the ankles and pulled her under.

She fell through the gapping hole in the ground to the floor below and landed roughly in a pile of debris that used to be the roof above her. She realized her situation before she could get to her feet. Within this ill lit room filled with various machines meant to work the tower's many services, stood the Teen Titans in a circle around her, staring her down. And at her front was Terra with a look of contempt on her face.

"You lied, you said that you wouldn't try to kill me," Terra glared at her sister.

"Things change," Isis retorted simply.

"It seems like you're full of lies lately." Terra narrowed her eyes and filled them with a yellow light, "Well I'm done believing in them."

Author's Notes:  
And another chapter is up. When I started writing this instalment, I intended it to be the final chapter before the epilogue. But given that the scenes stretched out so long, I decided to split it in two and prolong this story by just a little bit. This also explains the somewhat abrupt ending, which I apologize for. I have to say, the more powerful and crazy I make Isis, the less I enjoy writing her. Perhaps, when this is all over, I'll write an original story with her in it. No promises though, I already have an original story in the works. I haven't completed the first chapter of it yet, but you can see the first of my original works on the sister site: Fictionpress. I use the same screen name there as I use here.


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